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OR 



Every Man His Own Dehorner. 



ILLUSTRATED 



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H. H. HAAFF, 

Author of " Haaff on Dehorning.' 




CHICAGO: 
The Clark & Longley Company, Printers and Publishers. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1888, by 

H. H. HAAFF, 
In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 






PREFACE. 

The universal feeling of good will with which " Haaff on 
Dehorning Cattle" has been received among all the farmers 
and cattle-men everywhere, and the unalloyed satisfaction 
which the operation of " dehorning cattle " has given in every 
one of the thousands upon thousands of farms and ranches 
where the author's directions and tools have been used and 
followed, together with the resulting benefits bestowed upon 
both man and the brute creation, the many human lives saved 
and the thousands of pockets benefited, and, more than all, 
the hundreds of letters from one end of the continent to the 
other, and from Europe, South America and Australia, 
demanding to be given the reason why, and the time when, 
and the place where, and the way how " dehorning cattle " of 
all ages, sizes, conditions and kinds may be best done, these 
and the persistent determination of the author to make "Every 
Man his own Dehorner," practical and perfect — an adept in 
the art — these constitute the apology for offering " Haaff 's 
Practical Dehorner, or Dehorning Cattle Illustrated," with full 
cuts and ample description of every possible phase of the 
operation and all the attendant circumstances, to the public. 

The Author. 



AN APOLOGY 
Is perhaps due the readers of this volume for errors in the 
composition or in the typography of the work. The author 
will accept all criticisms, if any there are on this line person- 
ally, for in the attempt to issue this book during the month of 
March, it has so crowded us all that little chance has been 
given to review these pages. Please excuse any manifest 
errors and charge them to account of our crowded time and a 
desire to serve the public at as early a day as possible. 

The Author. 



^^n 




HORNS. 
Horns measure the constitutional vitality of the bovine. In 
nine-tenths of all North America, the ability of a stocker to 
survive the winter months is a heavy draft on the constitution 
of the animal. Given a pair of horns on a cow's head, twelve 
inches long from tip to base, (see Figs.), say from T to B, now 
it must be apparent that it requires more labor of the heart to 
supply blood for the animal economy if it must be pumped up 
a foot higher to " T " at two places than would be required to 
supply vitality if the horns were removed and the blood were 
to be supplied at B only, at the two bases of the horns. In 
other words, it requires food, blood and heart labor to supply 
warmth to the horns all the way up to the height of a foot at 
two points. It is well-known among physicians that in case 
of a cut artery on the arm the wound should be held higher 
than the heart, as it requires more heart labor to force the blood 
to the wound than it does if the wounded artery be allowed to 
hang below the level of heart. This statement is self-evident, 
and shows what little sense that man had who took his fellow 
from a mowing machine with his arm and artery cut and laid him 
down and ran for help instead of raising the arm and binding 
it to stop the flow of blood. Now, I repeat the horn measures, 
that is, it is a measure of the constitutional vitality of the 
bovine. It follows, therefore, that an animal with large horns 
must be able to stand the cold better than one with small 
horns. This is true, and accounts for the fact that the Hereford 
makes a better "rustler" than a "Short Horn." Hence an 
animal with no horns should be better able to withstand the 
cold than even a Hereford. True again as witness any of the 
polled breeds of cattle ; any one who has had them along 
side the horns as I have, knows the fact. The horn lessens 
the constitutional power of the animal to withstand cold. 
Remove the horns from all animals in Texas, and not so many 
of them will succumb to the " Northers ; " and dehorning cattle 



IO THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

is one method by which the cow-boys can help to tide over a 
hard winter, and this statement will be recognized as a fact as 
soon as it has been tried. 

The horn is a modification of the epidermis, or skin or hide, 
presenting the same structure whether in the nails of man, the 
claws of birds, the hoofs and horns of cattle, the spikes of the 
hedge hog, the plate of the armadillo, the whalebone of the 
whale, the quills of birds, the shell of the tortoise or the hair 
of the head. The horns of the stag and other deciduous (that 
is, those that are yearly shed) antlers, strictly speaking, are 
not horn, but they are true bone, and they are dropped off or 
shed by a process of absorption at the root like that by which 
dead bone is cast off after having been diseased, called necrosis. 
The structure of horn is a modification of cells, which becomes 
harder by drying, and becomes also more firmly adherent. 
These cells are arranged in regular layers, each indicating a 
period of growth. They are generally attached at the base to 
the corium or true skin (that is, the membrane which supports 
and gives life to the outer skin, and they are usually removed 
with the skin. They are secondary, growing and wearing 
away. They are liable to deformities by accident and are very 
beautiful in sections under the microscope. They appear 
much like a bundle of pressed hairs, as they are like hair in 
their composition and characteristics. In oxen and sheep and 
all hollow-horned ruminants (a ruminant is an animal which 
chews the cud) there is a central core of bone upon which the 
horns are moulded. 

The horn received its name from the Latin word " cornu, " 
which is a trumpet. It received its name also from the fact 
that it was formerly used as a drinking utensil, and hence the 
expression, " taking a horn. " It is asserted that the cervus, 
that is the deer tribe, if dehorned, will lose their power of repro- 
duction. This is an assertion, and I fail to find any proof of the 
fact, and I do not believe it to be true. This, however, I know to 
be true : the circulation of blood in the horn is of a secondary 
character and is principally capillary. I mean by that the 



HORNS. I I 

blood runs up the periosteum or membrane in the same way 
or in a manner similar to that in which water runs up a hand- 
kerchief when suspended with an end in a basin of water; and 
hence the conclusion which I draw is this, that as the circula- 
tion of blood is wholly of a secondary character, the part is 
liable to be omitted and may be entirely bred off. 

In all old animals the different bones of the head are liable 
to become united by the extension of ossification from one to 
the other, and while the parts may have been originally sepa- 
rate and independent, they are liable to become united into one 
solid mass or structure. This may account for the fact that 
some animals in the operation of dehorning will bleed slightly 
at the nose. The parts that in infancy were cartilage and sep- 
arate have by process of ossification become somewhat 
shrunken and united so that the porous character of the carti- 
lage has developed in an ossified form into direct openings, 
and it may seem to the person operating that there is a direct 
passage from the nose to the orifice where the horn is removed. 
There are various nasal bones which it is unnecessary to name 
here, but the bone to which I refer is technically called meseth- 
moid. 

In the deer the horns are solid and bone-like in composi- 
tion ; that is, are not covered by hide or epidermis. We are 
so accustomed to talk of " a pair of horns " that we do not 
think it possible for a bovine to have more than two horns, 
and yet at the Stock Yards at Chicago there is now, or 
was for some years, a large mammoth ox with three horns, 
the third growing from the center of the frontal bone at the 
apex or top, and equal or nearly as large as the side horns. 
This is simply another evidence of the fact claimed by the 
author, that the presence of horns or their absence is largely 
a question of breeding, and therefore a matter of choice on 
our part ; and there are in existence now living specimens of 
four-horned goats and many-horned sheep. 

The horn of the deer at first is soft, vascular and highly 
sensitive. They appear towards the end of spring. At this 



12 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

time the blood vessels surrounding the frontal eminences be- 
come large, and the budding horn grows with great rapidity. 
On attaining full growth a bar consisting of bony tubercles on 
the base of the horn is formed, and this, by pressing down, 
cuts off the blood vessels which supply nutriment to the 
antlers. The outer coating of the horn then begins to shrivel 
and all on account of the decreased circulation, and so the 
bone begins to die off, hastened by the deer rubbing the horn 
against the trees and rocks, and in process of time it sheds at 
the base, where it is connected with the frontal bone and drops 
to the ground ; though in warm climates, as in India, the deer 
does not shed its horns annually, and it is said that in castrated 
animals the horns do not appear or are simply stubs. 

Polled cattle are an artificial variety, which may be produced 
in any breed by selection and by persistent removal of the 
horns in early calfhood; and the polled cattle of the Galloway 
breed are known to have had horns as late as the middle of the 
last century; and by breeding with bulls with the shortest 
horns the Earl of Selkirk succeeded in removing these appen- 
dages. The same principle was adopted in producing the 
race of cattle we call Durham, or Shorthorn cattle ; for they are 
the direct descendants of what were known in England as the 
Long Horn cattle, which are themselves descendants from 
Welsh and Highland cattle. Welsh and Highland cattle are 
the earliest and remotest breeds of cattle known to the British 
Isles, and date back in their ancestry to the Roman period. 

The more one studies this subject of horns, the more he will 
find it true historically, as I know it to be true experimentally, 
that it is a question of breeding. This is abundantly shown 
in the ordinary Texas breed, and is also shown in the Hun- 
garian breed of cattle, whose horns measure frequently five feet 
from tip to tip. These and the cattle of the Romans were be- 
lieved to have been introduced by the Goths into Spain, and 
from Spain they were transported in turn to South America, 
and were the progenitors of the herds of wild cattle now roam- 
ing over the plains of South America, Mexico and Texas. 



HORNS. 13 

It was a consideration of these facts and other matters which 
came to my knowledge through my familiarity with cattle on 
my farm that led to my discovery of the art of dehorning 
cattle. A close examination of some of the illustrations given 
in this book will show, the reader that at the base of the shell 
horn there is a visible jog or offset in the bone horn itself. I 
asked myself this question : If God has built the deer 
tribe, so that by a process of local strangulation at the base of 
the horn the animal in process of time sheds its own horns, the 
horns dying prior to being shed, and if in the construction of 
the bovine as compared with the deer horn, the striking differ- 
ence seems to be that the former is covered with the shell horn, 
that is, that the hide of the animal is extended over the bone 
horn as the base or form, why may it not follow that if I re- 
move the bone horn at the point where cervus sheds it natu- 
rally, and if at the same time I remove the shell horn at a 
point below the shell, why, I say, might it not follow that the 
bone horn itself would lack the power of elongation, and the 
shell horn be destroyed and lack the power of reproduction, 
and the orifice so contract as to leave the animal a well-shaped 
mulley. The thing was settled in my own mind in an instant. 
By a sort of intuition I jumped at this conclusion, put it in 
practice, and made the discovery, and I hope by giving my 
readers partially the mental process by which I arrived at my 
conclusion I shall be credited with honesty of purpose ; for it 
is simply impossible that I should cover up anything in con- 
nection with this great question. I believe I am not boasting 
when I say that this is the greatest discovery of this age so far 
as the resulting benefits to the farmers are concerned ; and I be- 
lieve that I have made a second discovery, which, while not so 
great, is still to be of immense advantage to the farmers and 
cattle-men. That is my discovery of a successful cattle tag, by 
which the farmer shall be enabled to do away entirely with the 
barbarously severe practice of branding — a practice which, so 
far as the pain and suffering of the animal is concerned, is four- 
fold more severe than the practice of dehorning, and is, in my 



14 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

opinion, second only in severity to the practice of castration 
and spaying. If a gracious and munificent Providence shall 
spare my life for a few years, I know I shall see the cattle of 
this country wearing my brisket tags, and the practice of 
branding discarded, and if to this I may add for farm use a 
cheap and successful water or tank-heater (and I believe I have 
it already practically now), there will be but one thing more 
which I desire to do to round out my experience as a farmer ; 
and I say it in all humility, without any wish to boast, that I 
believe that if my life shall be spared for five years, I will have 
ready for introduction among the farmers and grangers of this 
country a cheap and successful farm engine, which shall run 
* without steam, without boiler, without danger of fire, without 
engineer to run it, and which shall be such a home institution 
that the women will employ it to do their washing and churn- 
ing, to pump their water, and at the same time the farmer will 
use it to cut his feed, to pump water for his stock, to saw his 
wood, and to do his threshing. This may seem like boasting ; 
but I shall be a terribly mistaken man if I do not in that time 
live to see it an accomplished fact. The first three — dehorn- 
ing, the cattle tag, and the water heater — I know are accom- 
plished facts ; the last remains to have the finishing touches 
put to it, and I shall rejoice that thirteen years of blessed 
happy home life on the farm have been not wholly without 
resultant benefits to my brother farmers. 



"THE REASON WHY." 

It is now over two years since the famous trial of " The 
People of the State of Illinois vs. H. H. Haaff," for " Cruelty 
to Animals," which lasted for four cold January days, and 
attracted universal attention, and was decided for the defend- 
ant. More than a half-million of cattle have shed their horns 
since that trial, and fully three-fourths of the number came to 
judgment during the fall and winter of 1887-88. As if to add 
potency to the verdict, and with a saliant tinge of poetic 
justice in it, the president of the so-called " Humane Soci- 
ety " actually stood up at the last meeting of the so-called 
" National Humane Society," and publicly advocated the u de- 
horning of cattle " as a mercy — a humane practice — a kind- 
ness to man and beast; and while his opinion counts as the 
opinion of one man only, and that a man who knows little or 
nothing about it practically, still as a pointer — a straw-^-it 
shows the way the tide sets, and is not, in a retributive sense, 
" a bark lost." 

" The agricultural papers " of the land have, during the 
past two years, almost without exception, advocated " dehorn- 
ing " as a measure of practical value and money advantage 
to ranchmen, dairymen, feeders, and breeders alike. The 
doctrine advanced that " Dehorning on the Plains " could 
never become a practice, since the cows need their weapons to 
defend their calves from wolves and other wild animals is 
abundantly exploded by ranchmen, who write that it is little 
help to a calf to have a mother with horns, since two wolves 
usually go together, and one attends to the cow, while the 
other steals the calf. The losses from " screw- worms " from 
" frozen horns," " broken horns," and in " shipping and 
yarding horns," makes " dehorning " a sine qua non to 
every cowboy on the plains. Texas mulleys are by no 
means uncommon, and the horns are bound to go, 

15 



1 6 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

on the big Western ranches, by the same law of economy 
that governs in the farm shed and pasture — to wit : 
the cattle are easier kept, are more docile ; huddle in cold 
weather and keep warm ; huddle in warm weather and keep 
off flies ; handle as feeders easier and with economy, are more 
gentle and tractable as mothers ; have no trouble at the water 
trough or tank ; spend their spare time in cold weather in 
housing the manure under the shed; need to be fed as stockers 
but once a day, and that near noon, and finally when the hay 
is stacked in the field, will actually avoid the need of using 
pitchforks for spreading the hay, since all will surround the 
hay in bunches. 

If more testimony is needed on the " reason why," it may 
be found in the appendix of letters from everywhere and from 
everybody giving personal experiences, even to the cowboy, 
who writes : " You may say that an old cow on the lift will 
get up twice as quick if dehorned." 

" The place where!' — Cattle to be dehorned should, if possi- 
ble, be confined in a cool yard, where they will be kept quiet 
or free from all excitement, as will be seen from reading the 
chapter on the Horn and Head Bones. 

The action of the heart has much to do with a successful 
operation. All disturbing causes should be prevented or 
removed, if present. Loud noises, cracking whips, dogs, 
boisterous boys, strange animals, bulls, cackling geese and 
chickens are out of place during this operation. Anything 
that excites the animal must be avoided. Dehorn the old 
bull first, and turn him out into a pasture or a yard by himself. 
He will be in a quiet and a reflective mood while you are 
operating on the balance. Keep the cows and calves together 
while being dehorned, and for a week or so thereafter free from 
worry. If you do not, both will shrink. If you observe this di- 
rection, you will be surprised at how little they, either of them, 
care for the operation. It is such a comfort to cow and calf to 
leave them together, and, as far as possible, let them be for a 
week or so as they were prior to dehorning. So, too, with cattle 



DEHORNING CALVES. I 7 

of all kinds, feeders, stockers, cows and all. Old associations 
are soothing, new ones are exciting. To excite is to drive the 
blood to the matrix, and is liable to cause bleeding, especially 
in young cattle and calves, or those of a plethoric or full 
make-up of body, and hence it is always better that the cattle 
be not stuffed prior to dehorning. 



DEHORNING CALVES. 

In the discussion of this branch of the subject, reference is 
freely made to Fig. I and Fig. 2 of the parts of the head, and 
Figs. 25 and 26, which are representations of the " Outcutter," 
and Fig. 28, which represents the second tool used in dehorn- 
ing calves, called the Gouge. Figs. 1 and 2 show the horn of 
a calf of an age too far advanced to use the calf instruments ; 
but they illustrate what it is desired to show in connection 
with this branch of the subject, namely, at what time may the 
saw be profitably used on calves' heads. As a rule, to which 
there are necessarily variations, it may be said that four months 
is the time, and from three to four months is the time at which 
the outcutter and gouge cease to be valuable for the purpose 
of dehorning. The best time to dehorn the calf is at weaning 
time, or shortly before, and that is also the best time for per- 
forming the operation of castration. [See article on " Castra- 
tion of Bulls."] 

Now the question is asked — Are two tools really necessary 
to be used in dehorning calves? And the answer is em- 
phatically, yes ; and for the following-named reasons : As has 
been all along insisted in these pages, the operation of dehorn- 
ing is more severe (do not quote me, gentle reader, as saying 
more cruel). I mean just what I say, " more severe." The 
operation of dehorning is more severe, or more bloody, if you 
please, than the operation at any age after calf hood. The 
reason for this is apparent, and, at the risk of repeating myself, 
I may refresh the reader's memory by saying it is because 



1 8 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

the parts are tender, for we must recollect the horn does not 
grow proportionately with the body of the brute, but much 
more rapidly, for the horn matures substantially at from two 
to three years of age ; so at least this is true, that after three 
years of age the brute will take on many more pounds of 
avoirdupois in proportion than the horn will show in corre- 
sponding size, so that in removing the embryo horn from 
the calf, the question to be addressed is, how to remove 
the embryo and the cartilage underlying and leave the animal 
substantially not interfered with at any other part. Long ex- 
perience has taught me that no single tool can be found (unless 
it should be a boring apparatus, and that would be horribly 
cruel), or can be used that will at once cut the hide, take out 
the embryo, and destroy the membrane underlying, by scrap- 
ing the skull-bone so as to prevent reproduction, and at the 
same time leave a wound that will atrophy and so contract as 
to leave the head in an adult without cicatrix or scar that will 
show after the operation has been performed. I claim that no pro- 
cess of dehorning cattle is right which leaves such visible marks 
of the operation on the animal after healing has taken place ; 
and if I don't teach and demonstrate a successful method of 
dehorning cattle from the calf of two days or two weeks up to 
the age of 30 years — which is the oldest age at which I have 
dehorned a brute — if, I say, I don't teach how to perform a 
perfect operation at any age and on any head, including as 
well the " nubbin on the doddie," the frail structure of the 
well-bred short-horn, the horn of the common farm-yard 
animal, or of the animals on the plains, which have alike 
been exposed to the rigors of open winter, and are so diseased 
that the membrane between the shell and bone horn has been 
destroyed — if I do not teach the reader of this book 
how to perfectly dehorn any of these animals, and at any age, 
then I have failed to accomplish the purpose for which this 
book was intended. 

And now, reader, I say to you, that the operation of de- 
horning calves is the most peculiar, the most particular, and 



DEHORNING CALVES. 1 9 

the most severe operation in the whole category of dehorning 
cattle ; in fact, it is a compound operation. First, the outcutter, 
shown in 25 and 26, must be used. The purpose for which 
this instrument is intended is to cut the hide through, not by 
striking down, not by a blow, but by a gentle pressure of the 
hand, and by turning the instrument on the calf's head. No 
man of ordinary intelligence will need to use this instrument 
on more than two horns, without discovering just how deep 
to cut. Turn the instrument firmly and fearlessly until you 
can feel that you are cutting bone, until you certainly know 
that at a depth of from a quarter to half an inch you have, by 
the twisting process, cut through the hide ; through the under- 
lying membrane and cartilage, and through the cartilage 
which has begun the process of ossification, and into the 
frontal bone, which is already getting hard. There is no need 
of cutting too deep, but be careful to cut deep enough. I have 
proceeded in this explanation far enough to say that you 
should throw the calf, and that his head should be firmly held 
on the ground or floor. I assume that every intelligent reader 
will understand that to dehorn a calf, or for that matter, any 
animal at all, the head is to be secured, and must be firmly 
held in a quiet position. You will need to use considerable 
pressure in cutting through the tough hide on the young 
calf's head— more pressure at the age of one month, than 
at the age of one or two days. In my judgment the time 
to dehorn calves, and I may also say to castrate calves, is 
when the horn-button first begins to protrude — that is, to show 
itself through the skin. 

Having now used the outcutter marked O C in Figs. 25 and 
26, lay it quickly down, and while the attendants still hold 
the calf and its head in a quiet position, use the gouge. By 
observing Fig. 28, you will notice that the jaws of the gouge 
are slightly elliptical, that is, they are not built on a circle, but 
the edges at the cutting point are a little down, so as to make 
them cut in using a little deeper all the time ; in other words, 
in lifting out the embryo horn, the gouge as an instrument 



20 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

will not only lift, but it will also cut the membrane under- 
neath, and will, at the same time, scrape the bone below the 
membrane. No gouge or other instrument for dehorning 
calves can be properly made unless substantially this form is 
adopted, and those men who are in the market with their " de- 
horning pincers " and their " dehorning knives," have simply 
stolen the ideas here presented from hearing me talk, or from 
articles written in the papers, or from my little book, " Haaff 
on Dehorning," and they will make an inglorious record for 
themselves among the farmers, from the simple fact that their 
tools will not fill the bill, or successfully perform the opera- 
tion without first cutting the hide as above described. The first 
gouges were built for my own use (as all my tools were first 
built), but they have met with a continually increasing public 
demand. When a man begins to get from ten to a hundred 
letters daily from his brother farmers, demanding that he give 
them some sort of an instrument to successfully dehorn cattle 
or calves, he should do one of the two things, either simply 
say, I can't do it, or proceed with the other alternative, as I 
have done, and do it, and do it well. I will give a dollar a 
horn for all the calf horns that can be produced after the 
proper use of my gouge aad outcutter, and I believe I have 
made this explanation of the operation so plain, that taken 
in connection with the cuts or illustrations, any boy ten years 
old can dehorn any calf. 

I recommend in dairy districts or where stanchions are used 
that you throw the calf and put him in the manure trough, 
that is, the foot wide passage way at the rear of the stanchion 
for receiving the droppings — of course cleaning it and putting 
a little litter into it. Throw the calf, with the back in this 
manure trough, and then turn the head in the position seen in 
Fig. 25 ; let one attendant firmly hold the head between his 
knees with both hands, each hand holding an ear; let the 
operator stand in front, facing the calf; and let one or more 
attendants hold the legs; one good strong boy or a man 
straddle the calf, and holding the hind legs, one in each hand. 



DEHORNING CALVES. 21 

down solid on the floor is enough ; and there ought not to be 
less than three in dehorning calves. The attendant who holds 
the hind legs as well as the attendant who holds the head, can 
remain in their positions until the operator, having dehorned, 
proceeds at the other end to perform the operation of castra- 
tion if desired. 

Fig. I shows a calf's horn twice removed with the saw. 
This horn was too old for the gouge or outcutter. The first 
or upper cut shows the operation [for this was the actual horn 
sent me by the gentleman who learned the art of dehorning 
of me; and he learned it, by the way, after having sent me this 
horn]. The trouble with the upper cut is that the base of the 
embryo is not reached. The lower cut is right on each side 
and not quite right on the front. On either side you will per- 
ceive that more of the hide and natural matrix has been 
removed than at the front ; but still enough of the horn and 
attaching parts have been removed to prevent its subsequent 
growth. H H shows the hair, and, by the way, the horn itself 
at this age is frequently hirsute. O is the orifice. The vascular 
character of the process has begun to show itself by ossification, 
while the part underlaying is still in a half cartilagenous con- 
dition. M M shows a part of the matrix, if we could see 
underneath we would know that the orifice O is extended 
through the entire length of the horn, and that in process of 
growth it does connect (as shown in horns of older cattle) with 
the frontal sinuses. 

The perversity and mulish obstinacy of mankind was never 
more clearly demonstrated than in this matter of dehorning 
cattle. At this point of writing, while I was at my desk, in 
came the representative of a hardware establishment, and after 
inquiring my name and finding it, proceeded to read to me a 
letter from some correspondent — a dealer with his hardware 
firm — who writes about as follows : " One of our patrons 
wants a dehorning saw, if he can procure one without pay- 
ing a fabulous price therefor." He has had bad luck in 
using a meat saw and wants one of Haaff's. He has dis- 



22 THE PRACTICAL DEHORN ER. 

covered by experience that he cannot properly dehorn either 
his calves or older cattle with a common meat saw or a 
carpenter's stiff-back saw, and as a dernier resort he " comes 
to Haaff," still grumbling that he wants it if he can get 
it " without paying a fabulous price." Gentle reader, to 
dehorn his calves or older cattle properly, and make it a thing 
of uniform success, he has got to have " Haaff's tools," or some- 
thing very similar. If I hadn't given the best years of my 
life to the services of the farmer without fee or reward, it might 
not be allowable in me to kick at the attitude assumed by 
some of these men, who " can saw off a horn as well as 
Haaff," some of them dealers who tell the farmer that any 
saw or other tool is as good for the purpose as Haaff's. I 
have borne with this sort of thing until forbearance has ceased 
to be a virtue, and I have small sympathy for a man who " has 
bad luck " in his dehorning under such circumstances. 

A reference to Fig. 2 shows a horn of three or four, or pos- 
sibly five months' growth, S S is the shell horn cut away pur- 
posely on one side. H B is the horn bone, or better, bone 
horn. The periostum, or membrane which produces the horn 
growth, is shown in this cut, but is not marked. The vascular 
or porous character of the young horn even at this age is shown 
in the several colored marks which appear in the center, but it 
will be seen by comparing Fig. 2, with Fig. 15, or other similar 
figures, how large the orifice in the horn becomes with age. 
In Fig. 2, the bone horn can be cut with a knife, something 
after the manner of a piece of soft wood, while in Fig. 15 no 
more impression can be made upon the bone horn with a knife 
than could be done upon a piece of "lignum vitae." In the 
one case the calf horn is substantially useless as a weapon of 
attack or defense. A severe blow by the calf itself or by an- 
other upon the horn, would not only knock off the shell, but 
would give the calf a very sore head for a long time, and pre- 
vent subsequent growth; while in Figs. 15, or 19, or 21, or 
22, which are figures of horns of older cattle, the same shock 
would produce little or no effect upon the horn or attaching 



DEHORNING CALVES. 23 

parts. It is a rather singular fact that the character of the 
bone horn in a calf of the age of four or six months, like Fig. 
2, will undergo the hardening process after being removed, so 
as to become substantially as hard as the horn of the adult 
brute. It is also a singular fact that where the calf or young 
animal is improperly dehorned, so that the stub horn grows as 
in the case of Fig. 4, or Figs. 5 and 17, etc., that the subsequent 
growth is very much less porous, is far more dense, and harder 
than the horn at any time during its first growth. Fig. 5 is 
the second growth of a stub horn. C C shows the point 
where the horn was first and improperly removed — possibly it 
is a little lower than the mark C C. The reader will notice 
that perhaps a quarter of an inch of horn was left in this case 
on the first dehorning. This cut is also an illustration of the 
dense character of the subsequent growth. Through C to 
the upper G almost the entire substance is shell horn. It 
seems like a pile, so to speak, of hardened hide, while at 
lower G the porous character of the bone horn is less distinct 
than in any specimens given. A small hole appears at G, but 
the balance of the bone horn in these specimens is so hard as 
to make it simply impossible to cut it with a knife, and it would 
polish like ivory. 

A queer thing in connection with dehorning is shown in 
Fig. 4, at the points marked R R. R R is intended to show 
a ridge, and the ridge is plainly visible. This ridge, R R 
is true shell horn. It is as though the cut at the base at this 
point had been made low enough. The same thing appears 
in Fig. 17, at the point A ; the same thing appears in Fig. 6, 
at the point A. 

It will be seen that in the case of a young brute as well as 
in that of an old one, if the germ of the bone horn is prop- 
erly removed the extension of the hide will largely continue 
so as to almost entirely cover the cicatrix, but if the germ of 
the bone horn or living process be not entirely removed the 
power of reproduction will be continued on one side, and 
where it ceases, as at R R in Fig. 4, or at A in Fig. 6, 



24 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

there the substance which oozes from the wound in dehorning 
will ossify, and partially or nearly cover the fractured surfaces 
and atrophied bone horn underneath. 

This seems like a digression from the subject of dehorning 
calves and young cattle; but I deem this the proper place 
to illustrate the point, and if I repeat on this at another point 
I shall make no apology for so doing, except a desire to enable 
you to understand this process of the combined atrophy, con- 
traction and covering of the parts where a horn was properly 
removed ; for the combination of these three things was my 
discovery. 



TO DEHORN OLDER CATTLE. 

But to return. We now begin at the age of three or four 
months to dehorn cattle by the use of the saw. The ques- 
tion arises at the outset, Why not use at this age " nip- 
pers " or " shears," or some instrument like a chisel or other- 
wise, that will at one blow cut off the horn? The answer is 
this : The same experience that proves that the hot iron is 
not the thing to kill the horn in a calf demonstrates that shears, 
and nippers, and chisels cannot be successfully used to remove 
and kill the horn in older cattle. Burning will not destroy 
the germ in the calf's head without permanent danger to the 
calf; no more wi]l clipping or nipping destroy the power of 
reproduction in the older brute, without great danger of injury 
to the animal. 

Fig. 27 shows HaarT's saw frame. The pin or pinion at the 
front end and the slit at the rear are made for the purpose of 
receiving a very narrow and fine blade. I have had various 
blades made expressly for the purpose of dehorning cattle. I 
have tried all kinds and sizes, and the result of much experi- 
ence is this blade : The Haaff blade is neither too soft nor too 
hard; neither too wide nor too narrow. It is now built so that a 
two-inch knife blade is furnished at the rear. This knife blade is 




Tie, s& 




Vla.26 




m Fiej 




?l&£5, 




26 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

to be sharpened and used after the bone horn has been entirely 
cut off Cut from the top down, as a rule, toward the ear. 
Cut hide and hair indiscriminately with the saw. Do not 
shave the hair before operating ; move it back a little with the 
left hand, so that when the operation is performed the hair will 
fall over and cover the wound as much as possible. When 
you have cut off the bone horn so that it hangs by a loose fig- 
ment of skin and flesh, which, by the way, is of course a part 
of the matrix, use the knife blade on the end, and by one dex- 
terous stroke sever the hanging skin so as to leave as much 
and no more of a cut, proportionately, than there was at the 
beginning on the upper side. About a thousand people have 
written me to know why the pin or pinion at the end is not 
made square. In the hands of the new beginner — the man 
who has not yet learned to carefully and properly secure the 
head before beginning — there is some danger that between 
the struggles of the animal and the half-scared operation 
of the new beginner, the blade will be broken. These 
blades are therefore hung on a swivel at the end. If, however, 
the operator conceives that he runs no risk, it is a very easy 
matter to make the blade rigid at the end. Take the pin out; 
file it with a three-cornered file a little, and file the notch also 
in the shoulder where it slides. Shove it back to its place, 
and insert the end of a small nail or any small bit of iron to 
serve as a key. Before using the saw at all screw it up so 
tightly that it will sing when thumped with the finger-nail, 
and never dehorn with a loose saw-blade. I am free to say 
that now that my new mode of securing the brute is given as 
shown in Figs. 23, 24 and 30, the necessity of having the blade 
so that it will turn like a swivel and not break is substantially 
removed, as it is impossible for the animal to move in strug- 
gling. Still no harm can possibly follow, for the pinion can 
be made rigid at any time, if desired, as explained above. 

Figs. 9 and 10 give the horn and upper skull bones of a 
yearling. I wish to call the reader's attention for a moment 
to these cuts. P P in Fig. 9 show the periosteum. H B is 



TO DEHORN OLDER CATTLE, 2J 

the bone horn. C C is the usual but improper place for cut- 
ting the horn on the yearling. C C, or as C G the artist has 
made it to appear, is the proper place. It will seem to the 
casual observer that there can be very little difference in the 
locality, but even a quarter of an inch on the end of a man's 
nose may make the difference between a pug nose and one 
that is not, and so this quarter of an inch is very important. 
By carefully observing Fig. 9 the reader will see that at the 
point G the vascular character of the bone horn has ceased ; 
that it has substantially ceased or nearly so at C. Now C is 
next to or near to the ear, and it is the lowest point at which 
we can cut with safety in the case of any animal, and there is 
this peculiarity which I have found, there is less danger of a 
second growth at the base of the horn than either at the sides 
or the top. Why I do not know or pretend to say ; but I 
know the fact. Now in the case of the yearling this peculiar- 
ity exists ; a cut made at G in the bone not only " shapes the 
head," but it will also heal, that is, I mean the bone will fill up 
and cover the opening. 

Now, if the reader will turn to the parts taken from the head 
of a three year old bull, Figs. 6 and 7, he will note, Fig. 7, the 
orifices G G are filled; so also the same thing is seen at 0,in 
Fig. 6. The hole is filled, but at G G the cut is made below 
the filling. Now if the three-year-old (Figs. 6 and 7) had been 
cut at the point G in Fig. 9, the power of reproduction is so 
far gone in the case of the three-year-old that the filling will 
not take place, and a hole would remain in the frontal bone. 
Why ? because the ossification in the three-year-old has be- 
come so dense as to have absorbed and destroyed the power 
of growth. It will thus be seen that the cut in the case of the 
yearling will be quite different from that of the three-year-old. 
In the three-year-old the saw should be used; placed so as to 
cut from C to C, while in the yearling the cut would be made 
more oblique or slanting, from C to G and never from C to 
C. That is, I mean to say that a cut from C to C in the head 
of a yearling will give a subsequent second growth of horn, 



28 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

while a cut from G to C will give a perfectly shaped mulley 
head of the yearling ; and I mean to say that a cut from G 
to C on a three-year-old will be likely to leave the frontal 
bone with a permanent open orifice. 

I cannot leave these Figs. 9 and 10 without calling the 
reader's attention to the awful suffering which the presence of 
the horn sometimes occasions the young animal. Any blow 
administered on the horn the reader can see will tend to sepa- 
rate the parts at the suture, which is shown in Fig. 9 at letter 
S. I think the reader can see by an inspection of these cuts 
that dehorning is a mercy even to the calf or yearling. As is 
seen at P in Fig, 9 and at G in Fig. 10, another bone inter- 
venes between the frontal bone and the brain. The brain lies 
below P. At A in Fig. 9, as well as at P, is shown the pari- 
etal wall or bone which covers the brain. At' S the suture is 
shown, and along the cross cut on either side of S the sinuses 
appear. From openings between the two bones at B in Fig. 
9, the wall which sustains the frontal bone is shown. There 
are many of these walls or partitions, and I have not pre- 
tended to reproduce them all. Examine any skull yourself, 
and see how admirably adapted the parts are to the purposes 
for which they were intended. The bovine head is built with 
a second story; the horse and human with one story. Great 
strength was needed in the head of the bovine, and the two 
sets of bones produced a form of great strength. A blow on 
top of the head, Fig. 10 at F, which would kill a yearling 
colt would have little or no effect on a yearling calf. The 
cross bone at G binds the two parts of the frontal bone, hold- 
ing them firmly together. One cannot but admire in the 
structure of this head the admirable mechanism of that God 
who has made all things suited to the purposes for which they 
are intended. Does the animal sustain a charge or blow on 
the head or horns, or does he make a charge with one 
horn, the second story, the cross bone and the partitions or 
walls between the frontal sinuses and the parietal bone make 
the head an almost perfect catapult or battering ram. Noth- 



TO DEHORN OLDER CATTLE. 29 

ing in the shape of flesh and blood can withstand the onset. 
So true is this that Dr. Livingstone, in the annals of his Afri- 
can explorations, declares that a wild bull will more than 
match any able-bodied lion, and that he himself has seen a 
buffalo bull successfully keep at bay three or four full grown 
lions. I said that nothing in the shape of flesh and blood can 
withstand the onset, but it is a horse of another color when 
flesh and blood in the shape of a smart active boy hurls a stone 
or chunk of wood and strikes the horn as in Fig. 21, where 
the hand is placed. In this case, as I have elsewhere explained, 
the springing of the parts at the suture produces intense agony, 
not so much by knocking off the shell or bone horn, as by 
communication to the brain, caused by the unequal blow on 
the one side and the suddenness of the shock. 

To return for a moment to Fig. 10. I have had the artist 
elongate the horn a little to show the location of the matrix, 
and how the bone horn gradually becomes harder, more dense 
and more like real bone at its base, until at D it is nothing but 
solid bone. I have also attempted to show in Fig. 10 where 
the matrix must be located. The reader will observe that at 
the base of the horn in Fig. 10, and also at the base of the 
horn in Fig. 19, there is a jog or offset. A A shows that jog. 
Cutting below the point A A, on this, the horn of a five-year- 
old, as will be seen by noting the wrinkles on the shell, would 
probably leave no stub horn, but it would be better to cut at 
M M, for it is found by practical experience that in the case 
of cattle of this age even it is sometimes better for the begin- 
ner to shave the edge of the matrix in the operation, and M 
M in this figure shows the matrix. The artist has also in Fig. 
19 elongated the part somewhat to show where the matrix 
lies. Fig. 20 shows the same horn, and the same part, accord- 
ing to nature. In both Figs. 19 and 20 P shows the periosteum. 
A A is substantially the point where the shell ends. One 
danger in removing the horn of the adult bovine at A A is 
that some part of the shell may be left, and if left one of two 
things is sure to follow: either the stub will grow from 



30 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

the shell, or the head will matterate until that part of the shell 
which is left remaining rots away. In this connection it may 
be as well to say that sore heads in dehorning follow from a 
variety of causes. A remaining scrap of shell horn may 
produce it; a frozen horn is sure to produce it ; ahead dis- 
eased will likewise produce it, no matter from what cause the 
disease may come. Anything affecting the general condition 
of the animal is almost certain to develop a sore head after 
the process of dehorning ; nor is it by any manner of means a 
bad result in its consequences to the animal. Many a man can 
testify that an animal that was " doing nothing; " making no 
growth ; taking on no flesh ; an animal that had been " off" 
for months, suddenly after the operation of dehorning has been 
performed, will begin to mend ; will show a vigorous appetite, 
lively disposition and take on flesh at a rapid rate. In a farm- 
ers' convention at Madison, Wis., this year, there were several 
men who called my attention to their experience in this line. 
In the convention at Woodstock, 111., where the subject of 
dehorning cattle occupied several hours, one gentleman gave 
an instance of a pet cow, an old animal, and so great a favorite 
that he refused to be present, and purposely went to town 
while she was being dehorned, and his son superintended the 
job. This old cow very soon after the operation gained in 
flesh, in spirit, in milk and in appetite ; but there was a mat- 
terated head, and this need occasion the reader no alarm unless 
it has been done by some carelessness in operating. If you 
have allowed the animal to bruise its head by a sudden jam on 
the matrix and the adjoining parts either before or subsequent 
to the operation you will be sure to have a matterated head until 
nature restores the bruised part. The danger is in this case 
that the large veins and arteries at the base of the horn next 
to the ear may have been so bruised that the inner coating shall 
have lost its contractile force, and subsequent hemorrhage may 
follow, and consequent loss possibly of the animal itself by 
bleeding ; but this has been treated of more fully in the arti- 
cle on bleeding. A ring of shell horn on the head is almost 



TO DEHORN OLDER CATTLE. 3 1 

certain to be followed by suppuration. I have shown how 
bleeding necessarily follows in such a case, and where there is 
much bleeding there must be much suppuration to restore the 
parts. I could fill pages in recounting the experiences of dif- 
ferent ones with sore heads. I heard of a man this winter out 
in Kansas, who lost four or five cattle out of one herd, and said 
he, " If this is dehorning we don't want any more of it in this 
country." My informant, who is himself an experienced de- 
horner, in writing me of this case says that the stub horns and 
the awful wounds made by the bungler who did this job was a 
sight calculated to sicken one, and disgust him with the oper- 
ation, and he thinks it is a duty to the public to prevent the 
possibility of a recurrence of such proceedings ; and I am 
writing this book, gentle reader, for that very purpose. Those 
four or five cattle which our unknown friend lost, and the dam- 
age to his herd of a hundred or more, which my friend says 
was an unwelcome sight, the cattle looking as though they had 
just passed through a severe winter — hollow, gaunt, wander- 
ing aimlessly around, without appetite — the loss, I say, to that 
one herd of cattle, would have furnished enough of these 
books to have made every farmer in the country a practical de- 
horner. Rest assured I will do what I can to prevent this 
kind of amateur performance. I don't believe a farmer can be 
found who will say that the cost of the book and proper tools 
is not a good investment in the case of every man in the land 
who owns cattle. 



THE VARIOUS MODES OF SECURING THE 
ANIMAL. 



The first thing to be done in dehorning an animal is to prop- 
erly secure the animal, for no one can successfully dehorn 
cattle, unless the animal is quiet, and unless the parts next the 
horn especially are so as to be substantially immovable. No 
one can successfully dehorn a brute when its head is liable to 
be jerked either up and down, or sideways. After my dis- 
covery of a successful method of removing the horn, the next 
great question that presented itself was this — of securing the 
animal. I tried casting and tying with ropes. I tried lashing 
the head and neck between two trees. I tried tying the head 
to a post, with the frontal bone brought square up to the post, 
so that a horn on either side could be reached. I tried the 
stanchion, tying up as well as fastening the head and neck. All 
these plans are attended with great inconvenience, much annoy- 
ance to the brute and operator, and much of danger to both. 
The animal is sure to become terribly excited, and to thrash 
around in such a way as to become heated. The operator is 
sure to become nervous, in fact after a little, if he be not a man 
unusually well balanced, his temper is apt to be somewhat 
riled ; in fact he gets something worse than "buck fever;" he 
gets a fever of mad, and is apt to damage himself and the brute 
too. No animal is likely to be properly dehorned while either 
man or brute are hot or excited. After a variety of experiments 
I ceased attempting to secure the body of the animal, and 
adopted my method of dehorning by the use of the stanchion. 
The loop, showing the rope with two rings in the cut marked 
Fig. i, shows how the rope should be placed upon the neck. 
After being laid over the neck the rope is doubled, and the 
double portion passed through one of the rings. Then the 
head should be raised and drawn up tightly to the top rail of 
the stanchion. While one or two attendants draw on the rope, 

32 



THE VARIOUS MODES OF SECURING THE ANIMAL. 33 

a third should raise the nose; then bind the rope again over 
the top rail and nose, slipping it a second time through the 
second ring. I have found by experience that two three-inch 
rings are more convenient than one large one. In the stanchion 
cut, marked Fig. 2, which is the same cut that was shown in 
" Haaff on Dehorning," only one small ring is shown, but, like 
a dozen other things, experience taught us how to improve on 
this method. The animal's head, in Fig. 2, should appear 
drawn up tightly to the top rail. So soon as we begin using 
the saw the animal will, in three cases out of four, fall over, 
and, if properly tied, will strike on the hip, resting on the hip 
and hanging part by the neck and head. The illustration 
given and marked as stanchion, Fig. 3, shows the cow after 
having fallen ; but in this case, as in Fig. 2, the head is not 
right. In the one it is too low, and not drawn to place, while 
in the other the nose is too high, and the rope should appear 
drawn tightly around both nose and top rail. Some one or 
more persons have written me, wanting to know what holds 
the " movable 2x4 oak " and the catch above. A moment's 
consideration will show anyone that the top and bottom of 
the movable piece should work between two 2x6 pieces. 
The front, 2x6, both at the top and the bottom, is withdrawn, 
in order that the catch and the arrangement of the parts may 
appear in the cut. The space for the neck should be five 
inches in width, more or less, according to the size of the head 
and neck of the animal to be dehorned. If a bull, it will 
probably be even necessary to leave the movable bar clear 
down. The stanchion should be five feet in the clear, up and 
down, for the space where the neck of the animal is confined. 
That will give you a stanchion six feet from floor to top of top 
rail. For ordinary use this is a little higher than is necessary, 
but it is none too high for dehorning purposes. In either in- 
stance, great care should be taken that the legs of the animal, 
particularly the hind legs, be not caught in some way among 
the parts of the stanchion. To avoid this trouble, it has been 
my rule where I could do it, to have half a dozen stanchions or 



34 -THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

more together. By having so many cattle standing closely 
together (for two feet and a half in width is enough for almost 
any brute), the reader will see that all possibility of getting the 
legs mixed by twisting or turning in the stanchion is avoided. 
The artist has not been true to the fact in giving the location 
and appearance of the animal, but the cuts will do well enough 
with my explanation. Having removed the horns, or having 
bound the head and nose and removed one horn, it is some- 
times necessary to turn and bind again and remove the other; 
but when both horns are off, the stanchion should be thrown 
open, and the animal invited to rise at once, and allowed 
to move out into the open yard. 

I hope none of my brother farmers, however moderate their 
circumstances, or however small their ability as carpenters, 
will neglect the building of a suitable stanchion, one or more, 
according to the number of milk cows they have, for whether 
summer or winter, a stable for the cows for feeding and milk- 
ing purposes is essential to atta the best results ; and with 
the horns removed, it makes the matter of keeping cows much 
more pleasant in the stanchion or stable. The labor of build- 
ing half a dozen stanchions is far less than one might suppose. 
Study the cuts and figure out the distances and lumber for 
yourselves. Anyone can do it in five minutes' time. Observe 
that the upright at the right hand is one twelve inch plank, 
cut to the shape or form shown in the figure. The wide 
part at the bottom is necessary, so that when the movable falls 
back, the animal, in putting its head into the stanchion, will put 
it in the right place. There is absolutely no waste at all in 
cutting these uprights where 2 x 12, twelve feet long, are used, 
with 2x6 stuff, twelve feet long. 

It is now my pleasure to present to my readers one other 
mode of stanchion, that invented and used by Mr. E. P. C. 
Webster, of Marysville, Kansas. Brother Webster is a "de- 
horner from wayback," to use a slang phrase. He is one of 
those practical, everyday kind of men, who size a thing up for 
just what it is worth. His motto is substantially, I take it, the 



THE STANCHION. 



Mffi 2* 




THE STANCHION. 




Mff. 2- 




THE VARIOUS MODES OF SECURING THE ANIMAL. 



37 



Shakspearian motto regarding the utility of anything pre- 
sented, " Will it give me bread, or set a bone ? No ; then I'll 
none of it." Traveling as he does over a large portion ot 
Kansas, dehorning cattle everywhere by the thousand, not 
only in Kansas, but in other states, he finds it necessary at 
every place to provide some secure, and at the same time cheap 
and easily constructed mode of holding the animal. He sends 
me a photographic view of one of his stanchions, which he built 
one morning this winter, and dehorned for a farmer some 
fifty odd head of cattle, and drove six miles afterwards to 
another point, and did all in the course of the forenoon, so he 
was on hand at noon for his dinner; and all this besides making 




THE WAY MR. WEBSTER DOES IT. 

a similar trip in the morning to the farmer's place. A careful 
inspection of the cut discovers a twelve-inch board or plank 
at the bottom, securely nailed at the two ends to two upright 
posts, and of a board or plank at the top to correspond. If I 
readily understand him, the boards or planks at the bottom 
and at the top are double ; in fact, I know they must be, because 
a catch is shown in the illustration which fastens the movable 
bar of the stanchion up against the animal's neck. It will be 
observed by examining this cut that Brother Webster has in- 
serted several pegs in the upright to which the nose of the ani- 
mal is directly attached. These pegs, he explains, are located 
at different heights to accommodate different sizes of cattle; 



38 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNEK. 

they are three hard wood pegs driven into an inch, or three- 
quarter inch hole, or holes, bored into the upright at conven- 
ient points. It will be observed, also, upon inspection, that 
the animal's neck is tightly bound to the upright on one side 
of the stanchion where the animal is held. Mr. W.'s idea is to 
put the animal in a substantially immovable position by the 
double bind, binding the nose to one upright and the neck to 
another. This gives the operator free access to both horns at 
one time, and obviates the difficulty experienced in using the 
stanchion as I had been accustomed to use it ; for in my case 
it was frequently necessary to change the position of the neck, 
and turn it to the other side in order to get at the second horn. 
I would suppose the rope which appears in Mr. W.'s plan 
under the eye and along the cheek bone of the animal would 
be liable to irritate and injure the eye, but he says in practice 
this is not the case. It is certain that among the thousands 
of farms where there are no chutes and where the stanchion 
must be built, if at all, in a place like that shown in the cut, 
it is most probable that for places like this, Brother W.'s plan 
takes the cake, and will outrank all others. The same 
objection, however, pertains to this plan as to my own with the 
stanchion, and in fact to the plan of Mr. Richards of Iowa, 
which I will presently give — that is, getting the feet tangled in 
holes or open places, or partitions adjoining, and especially in 
twisting the neck. It seems to be an uncomfortable posture 
for an animal, and while it is only for a moment, yet I believe 
it ought to be done away with if possible, or convenient at 
least. It is only fair to add that Mr. Webster is not only a 
practical, but he is also a very successful dehorner of cattle, 
and that among the thousands and ten thousands of cattle that 
he has dehorned he has to loose his first animal, and this is 
more than I can say for myself. 

The third method of securing the animal which I shall 
give is that of Mr. W. H. Richards, of Cresco, Iowa. It is 
shown in the accompanying cuts. This is a portable stanchion 
and chute combined. The parts are planks and boards, two 



THE VARIOUS MODES OF SECURING THE ANIMAL. 39 

by fours and four by fours, for posts and cross-bars. Three or 
four men can readily pick it up, throw it on to a common 
lumber wagon, and carry it anywhere. It is braced by iron 
rods, and to avoid the leg-tangling trouble above mentioned. 
Brother Richards has invented and added a wide belt, surcingle 
or strap, that passes under the animal and is drawn up by 
ropes, so that the weight of the animal rests partly on this 
strap or belly-band. The band, I believe, is about two feet 
wide ; can be made of any strong canvas, as shown in the 
cut. This prevents the animal from lying down, and obviates 
the difficulty experienced in my own stanchion about getting 
the legs caught. It will be observed by inspecting the cut 
that the rope drawn over the animal's neck prevents its jump 
ing out of the chute forward. It will be noticed also that 
there is a pulley attachment at the rear, by which the head and 
nose are drawn around and bound to one side of the portable 
chute. The pulley or roller attachment is added to furnish 
greater power, if needed. Mr. Richards has this chute patented. 
He goes everywhere, dehorning thousands of cattle, and with 
uniform success. He will give anyone the exact dimensions 
of his stanchion upon application by letter or otherwise. 
He backs his chute right up to the stable door, or a 
pair of bars in the yard, and the cattle are driven 
up, and, as one passes through the chute, he is 
caught and at once secured and dehorned, and all is done 
in less time than it takes me to tell it. A very small 
fee is added by Mr. Richards for the farm right to use his 
patent chute, and I can see, that in a great many cases, it is a 
most desirable tool to have; and after the dehorning is done 
for very many purposes on the farm, such a tool is well worth 
the two or three dollars that it will cost. 




mm 




RICHARDS' DEHORNING CHUTE AND FRAME. 



40 



THE CHUTE. 

It was not until the past summer that I was brought face 
to face with the absolute necessity of producing some other 
mode of securing the animal than that afforded by the use 
of the stanchion. The Hon. R. H. Whiting, of Illinois, has 
two sons located on large ranches in Kansas, and both of 
them are well stocked with hundreds of the very best of 
short horn cattle — cattle which have roamed wild over his 
ample thousands of acres for so many years that they have 
become virtually wild cattle ; and they were worse than any 
wild cattle I ever saw. When it was understood by the 
neighbors that I was coming to Kansas to teach the Whit- 
ings the art of dehorning, a great many people in that local- 
ity were curious to see how I would manage to secure and 
hold those cattle. There were great twelve and fifteen hun- 
dred pound cows and imported bulls, and many of them so 
fierce that no man dared go on foot into the fields where 
they were, if likely to be near them. 

There were the finest bullocks, and the finest calves, and 
the finest heifers it was ever my pleasure to see, coming off 
grass alone. I confess, having arrived on the ground and 
hearing the remarks that were made, and noticing the sly 
and grim looks of curiosity apparent among the cow-boys, 
and observing that the women folks of the establishment had 
found it convenient to make a visit to distant friends, taking 
the children with them, I confess I say, that I made up my 
mind that the outlook was rather bilious, and I didn't sleep 
much during the first night of my stay at the Whiting ranch. 
Before morning, however, the clouds had broken and the 
sky was. unobscured. Mr. Whiting's entire ranch of many 
thousand acres and his yards were surrounded by stone walls 
six and one-half feet in height. Into one of the smallest o 



41 



4 2 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

these yards were driven a hundred of these wild cattle. 
Previous to this we erected, with posts and by the use of 
2x6s, two small yards containing about a dozen or twenty 
cattle each, separated from each other by cross-timbers of 
the same material. At the end of the yard there extended 
a chute, built of close material i y 2 feet wide at the bottom 
and three feet wide at the top, giving the chute a V-appear- 
ance. We would rush the two yards full of wild cattle, then 
close the outside bars and the bars between the yards. Hav- 
ing the two yards of cattle together it tended to keep them 
more quiet and prevent desperate rushes. But we needed 
every inch of the six one-half feet in height, and there 
were some cattle who vaulted those fences in spite of us. 
My readers may guess that the situation is interesting when 
a bullock or an old cow will climb up the side of a chute six 
and one-half feet high to make you a friendly call. It must 
be borne in mind that the posts along that chute were only 
one and one-half feet apart and were held firmly together 
at the top by withes or a number of strands of wire. I 
would use wooden caps instead of wire, and have a good 
wide plank at the top to prevent the heads coming through. I 
found that the use of my Jewel and the plank at the side made 
a perfectly safe way of securing the wildest animal. We 
would run into this chute several cattle one after the other, 
putting poles between them as fast as they came up, to pre- 
vent the possibility of backing into the yard again, and when 
I came to repeat the operation at Ames, Neb., I built a chute 
long enough to hold a string of a dozen cattle one after the 
other. It will be understood, of course, that we had to use 
a block and tackle in order to draw these wild and fierce 
cattle up to the proper position at the end of the chute. The 
cross-bars which are to hold the cattle from going out should 
be so adjusted as to have a continuous bearing at the side a*. 
chute on the top and bottom of at least four feet besides tnv. 
two feet needed to close the chute. This is done so that the 



THE CHUTE. 43 

bars can never drop down,but will be always in place, and can 
be slid into position with one finger. 

Careful study of the figures will show how to build my 
chute, and I have steadily decreased the width on the bot- 
tom of the chute proper until I now use a single plank for the 
bottom. I have almost entirely discontinued the use of the 
stanchion in dehorning cattle. In using the chute I arrange 
holes on both sides, so as to shove two three-inch poles under_ 
the animal, about two feet up from the floor. The hind one 
should be omitted in case of cows heavy with calf. 

This fourth and last method of securing cattle for dehorn- 
ing is what I have termed " My New Method." I have told 
both Mr. Richards and Mr. Webster that while I would faith- 
fully give, and be glad to give their plans an equal hearing in 
my book with my own (because I am writing this book for the 
benefit of the every-day farmer), yet I should be obliged to say 
that I believe my new mode " takes the cake." In the first 
place, all twisting and bending of the neck are done away 
with ; in the second place, the manner in which I construct my 
chute makes it, every way considered, a desirable piece of 
property on the farm whenever any bovine or animal of the 
horse kind shall need to be secured. My new mode is not 
patented; but a patent has been applied for, and the application 
has been made, in order to simply protect the every-day 
farmer, as well as myself, from the unjust attempt of outside 
parties, who are now, and have been, preying and poaching 
upon the labors and brains of both Messrs. Richards and 
Webster. I am not a little surprised when these men write 
me that all over the Northwest farmers will employ a lot of 
men to dehorn their cattle, who steal the brains of these men; 
appropriate their plans to themselves, and attempt to destroy 
their business by cutting under their prices. And here let me 
answer about one thousand inquiries like the following : " Will 
you also tell us in your reply to our letter what you consider 
to be a fair price for dehorning cattle." And I uniformly say 
from fifteen to twenty-five cents a head, according to number, 




j}$m 





45 



46 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

location and trouble, all things being considered. In the case 
of herds numbering several hundreds it is quite likely that 
ten cents would be a fair price. But these mountebanks who 
go around the country dehorning cattle without knowing any- 
thing about it, without even having read my little pamphlet 
on the subject, who seize upon the carpenter's saw, or the 
butcher's meat saw ; get out a few cards or posters, and style 
themselves, " John Smith, Dehorner ;" going from place to 
place; charging five or six cents a head; leaving a lot of 
unsightly stubs ; doing as a gentleman wrote me from Iowa 
(not either of the above) one man whom he knew did — killed 
two steers for a man the first thing in the morning. These 
men make the business of dehorning obnoxious, and bring it 
into great disrepute in certain localities. I am aware of the 
trouble, but do not know how to remedy it ; and hence if the 
patent shall be granted me on my application I shall try 
to make it lively and interesting for some of the aforesaid 
fellows who "saw off horns." 

I want " every man to be his own dehorner." I am writing 
this book for that purpose, and with that expectation. I feel, 
as the McHenry Sentinel puts it, just received and now on 
my table. It says : " Mr. Haaff addressed a large audience at 
our recent Fifth Congressional District Institute on the sub- 
ject of dehorning cattle ; and he made us all believe that 
dehorning has come to stay." It is for this purpose that I 
now offer my new mode, believing it for the reasons above 
stated, to be, all things considered, the mode of dehorning 
cattle that all ought to adopt. 

An inspection of Figs. 23, 24 and 30 will give the reader a 
proper idea of what my new mode is. Fig. 30 shows the 
V-shaped rack or portable chute. On the right of the cow's 
head and neck will be seen in Figs. 23 and 24, and 30 the 
plank sticking out a foot in front of the chute, to which the 
neck is to be lashed. It is needless to say that the plank 
should be thoroughly spiked on to the uprights on one side 
or the other (I prefer the right side of the chute) and on the 



THE CHUTE. 47 

inside of the chute. The chute itself is composed of two 
sides solidly nailed together, the lower three feet on the inside 
being boarded up and down, as appears in part of Fig. 30 ; 
the up and down boarding is not shown in Fig. 24, but is pur- 
posely omitted in order that you may see the first part of the 
construction. In Fig. 24 or 30 the steer or cow is shown 
standing on one plank eight to twelve feet long, and ten or 
twelve inches wide ; and herein lies the great improvement 
over the ordinary cattle chute. This chute is six and one-half 
feet high ; inside, fourteen feet stuff should be used for uprights 
(cut in two), ten or twelve inches wide at the bottom, and three 
feet wide at the top. The loose pieces on top, shown in Fig. 
30, are slipped over the top ends of the uprights, and go with 
pins to their places ; or, as will be seen, the uprights can be 
extended, and the cross-bar placed so as to prevent the pos- 
sibility of the ends being driven up. The lower part of the 
sides drop into the slots and are keyed. In Fig. 24 the ends 
should show four by four or four by six pieces on the ground, 
extending out a few inches beyond the plank, so as to be given 
plenty of chance to fasten the sides thereto. It will thus be 
seen that the two sides may in a moment be lifted away from 
the bottom, and the top pieces may be lifted off. The sides, 
bottom and side pieces may all be thrown into a wagon, and 
transported anywhere. Note one defect in Fig. 24 : the plank 
on which the steer stands should not extend beyond the 
sides in front. This is remedied in Fig. 30, but in 30 the 
artist has failed to catch on to my instructions, for the two 
cross-bars at the front should show slots, into which they 
readily work, and uprights to them to prevent their being 
knocked off in the struggles of the animal. However, any 
intelligent person can remedy these little defects. Now, then, 
notice this— the advantages of this chute are : First, the narrow 
plank on which the animal stands ; second, the close sides, 
preventing any possibility of injuring the feet or legs; third, 
its portable character ; fourth, the plank, solid and firm, to 
which the animal can be securely fastened ; and fifth, the fact 



48 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

that the V-shape of the chute prevents the possibility of the 
animal being cast in this chute. Of course the bar will be 
shoved in behind the animal as is shown in Fig. 3c. There 
will be bars in front, and one or more underneath to prevent 
the animal lying down. 

There remain now one or two important matters to be con- 
sidered. Suppose the animal to be a wild, vicious bull or 
steer. He is driven into the chute. He tries and finds he 
cannot get out. As he jams himself forward an attendant 
with a cross-bar slips it in behind and the animal is caught. 
He can neither go forward nor backward. He is there. In 
an instant an attendant has thrown a rope noose over the horns, 
the other end of the rope is attached to the block and tackle. 
One or two men now draw on the rope in these pulleys. 
The animal is thus pulled forward, and his neck and breast are 
drawn against the cross-bars above and below. In an instant 
another attendant has thrown from the end of the plank, stand- 
ing on the side opposite the plank, the arrangement shown in 
Figs. 23 and 24, which I call the "Jewel." A great many 
have asked me, " Why do you call such a looking thing as 
that a jewel." I answer, " Because it is a jewel." I consider 
it an immense discovery in connection not only with this prac- 
tice of dehorning, but for use in any case in which the head 
or neck of a horse or bovine needs to be secured. The con- 
struction of the Jewel is plainly shown in Fig. 23, which gives 
us an end view. It is made of oak. Three pieces, 7 inches 
wide by 8 inches long are sufficient. The lower one under 
the throat should be in fact but 6 inches long. Seven inches 
is a good width for the neck from the chops down. Eight 
inches is about the right length up and down, for when the 
neck is secured and held in place by the pry, L, shown in 
cuts 23 and 24, the upper one of these pieces will fall over 
somewhat obliquely on top of the neck, so that the 16 inches 
of the two pieces will about accommodate the 12-inch plank 
to which the neck is to be secured. In this Fig. 23, the parts 
L is the 7-foot hand-spike; N N is the neck; J E the 



THE CHUTE. 49 

Jewel ; Ch. Ch. is the chain. The chain should be about 3 or 
$y 2 feet long. It should be fastened securely by a bolt to the 
bottom of the plank, as shown in Fig. 23. As I before stated, 
the attendant will stand on the side of the brute opposite the 
plank. He will catch the end of the chain. The chain, by 
the way, is stapled permanently and securely to the outside 
three pieces of oak which form the Jewel. The upper piece 
of plank is fastened to the lower piece by a couple pieces of 
rope, stapled on so that the upper piece cannot be turned on 
the chain. The attendant standing opposite grabs the chain 
above the top of the Jewel at the hook. No hook appears, 
but my reader will understand that the hook when caught on 
the other side of the chain will come somewhere about where 
the hand-spike appears. The attendant will pass this chain 
and Jewel up over the steer's neck; the attendant on the plank 
side of the steer catches the chain as it is passed to him, and 
by a quick motion fastens the chain hook on to the other part 
of the chain, drawing the steer's neck to the plank. The at- 
tendant on the plank side then quickly slips in a 6 or 7-foot 
pole or hand-spike, and drawing it out as will be seen in the 
cut, he fastens the neck of the steer so tightly to the plank 
that it is impossible for the strongest or largest bovine in exist- 
ence to move laterally. At the same moment that this is 
done the operator should slip the bull-leader into the 
nose, and wind the rope attached thereto around the post 
at the bottom, or let the attendant on the other side do it; 
and grabbing the steer by the horns, put his knee on top of 
the animal's nose, and bring the nose and the head of the ani- 
mal down so that the rope attached to the bull-leader 
will be drawn taut. The reader will now perceive that 
this animal can neither move his head or neck horizontally or 
perpendicularly. His head is immovable either up or down, 
or from one side to the other. In other words, we have at last 
discovered a way of properly and perfectly securing an animal 
for the purpose of dehorning him, and it makes little difference 
whether it is a 6-year-old bull, or a yearling heifer that is to 



5° THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

be dehorned. A little more help may be required in one case 
than in the other, but the operation is the same, and is attended 
with no danger. Dehorning by this method is simple, easy 
and perfect. Dehorning by any other method, whether by 
casting the animal as the cow-boy on the plains does ; whether 
by the use of the stanchion or otherwise, is terribly hard work, 
and no man ought to be in receipt of less than ten dollars a 
day who has to wrench, and strain, and draw, and twist, and 
turn, and lift and struggle, to get the animal's head into a posi- 
tion by the use of a rope or ropes in securing. In this case 
the slide bars in front work easy ; the bar from behind is easy 
work ; the two pulleys and ropes make the hauling of the ani- 
mal easy work ; the throwing of the Jewel over the neck is 
easy work ; the catching of the hook on to the chain itself by 
the other attendant is easy work ; the manipulating of the pry 
or hand-spike by one or more attendants, according to the size 
of the animal, is easy work ; the pushing of the nose, and 
binding it by the use of the bull-leader and other rope, is easy 
work ; and finally, when the operator has cast the rope off the 
horns, the use of HaafT's dehorning saw on the head of any 
animal that I have ever seen is comparatively easy work. The 
horns are free ; so is the operator. The head cannot move. 
The operator can cut, and he will cut, if he understands his 
business, so as to make a perfect mulley without bleeding or 
danger of loss or damage, and with no possibility of having a 
stub horn afterwards if he has studied this book, and learned 
how to dehorn an animal at all. The time will come, and it 
will not be many years either, when the question will be asked 
of every man who attempts to dehorn cattle, " Have you studied 
and do you understand the modus operandi given in ' Haaffs 
Practical Dehorner?' " I say to you, my reader, and I say to 
everyone, you may call it egotism if you choose, there is but 
one true way to dehorn cattle, and that is the method here and 
now for the first time given to the public. I would not be 
afraid to guarantee ten thousand farmers and cattle men against 
possibility of loss or injury if they adopted this mode of 



THE CHUTE. 5 I 

handling their cattle during the operation. In fact, there is 
but one possibility of injury, and I am not going to cover that 
up, but I am going to tell it flat-footed and plain. After the 
Jewel is thrown over the neck, and the hand-spike has been 
placed and the chain drawn up, the bar on which the neck 
rests should be drawn forward — in fact, both the lower bars and 
the upper too, for that matter, may be drawn directly. This 
prevents the possibility of choking ; and choking is the only 
way in which the animal can be injured in the Haafif chute. 
After the horns have been removed the nose rope should be 
loosened at the bottom, the bull-leader slipped from the nose 
and thrown to the ground at the side of the chute, where it can 
be picked up in a moment when the next animal is to be oper- 
ated upon. Then the hand-spike should be quickly removed, 
and at the same instant the chain unhooked and the Jewel 
thrown from the neck. Of course it will hang at the bottom 
where it is bolted to the plank and will be ready for the next 
animal. The top bar and the lower bar need not be drawn 
until the Jewel is unloosed, but a very expert man will per- 
form both these final operations in such an exceedingly small 
second of time as to appear to be done simultaneously ; and 
the animal, which has not been confined during the whole oper- 
ation one-sixteenth as long a time as it takes me to explain 
all this, will go out with ablat, kick and jump, and go on to 
his companions to all appearances as if nothing had happened 
to him. He will not begin to make the fuss that he would if 
he were branded ; neither will the head be as sore, or so long 
sore as the spot where the cruel hot iron was placed. This 
Jewel and plank and chute leave nothing to be desired in the 
way of an apparatus for securing animals for the purpose of 
dehorning. 

I ought not to drop this branch ot the subject without 
saying to my readers: Brother Farmers, this chute will cost you 
possibly five dollars. It is as essential an apparatus to every 
well-regulated farm yard as a halter is a necessity for securing 
a horse in the stable. Every time you want to castrate a bull; 



52 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

every time you have an unruly cow to be milked ; every time 
you have a cut or wound on any quadruped to be sewed up or 
doctored, such a chute as this is the place to secure the animal. 
You know it. Why not stop and build it now ? It may take 
you and your boy a day to do it ; it ought not to take longer. 
Suppose it takes a day; what of it ? Build it, and build it 
well. The more you use it the more you will like it ; until 
every time it becomes necessary to secure anything from an 
old ram to a kicking horse, it will be a by- word on the farm, 
and you will all say, " Run him into the Haaff chute. " 

Figs. 8 and 16 are horns which were badly diseased. 
The casual observer would find it difficult to determine the 
difference in the disease ; but Fig. 8 is a case of broken horn 
in which not only the shell was broken, but the bone horn 
itself was also broken, and the periosteum between torn from 
its place. In this case the reader can see that unless the ani- 
mal is in a healthy condition and the weather very favorable 
it must suffer for a long time before the stub horn remaining 
would heal. The attempt of the periosteum to heal where it 
is torn from between the shell horn and bone horn fully illus- 
trates what I have claimed as the certainty of much loss of 
blood where the horn is removed so as to leave a stub. In 
this Fig. S is the shell ; P P the periosteum ; O the orifice 
which is connected with the frontal sinuses. The stub below 
was about two inches long and the animal somewhat matured ; 
probably four years old. 

In Fig. 1 6 we have a case of destruction of the horn by 
simple freezing of the parts, and in both these cases there 
will inevitably be a partial destruction of the bone horn by 
reason of its slaking or dissolving ; in fact, it seems to be the 
case with every diseased horn that the bone horn is likely to 
become more or less dissolved, so it makes little difference 
what the character of the disease may be, the result in every 
case is substantially the same, and the animal will do nothing 
until the diseased part is removed or healing takes place by 
natural process after a long time. Fig. 18 shows the horn 



THE CHUTE. 53 

removed from a five-year-old Texas steer. A comparison of 
this figure with Fig. 22, which is the horn of a seven-year-old 
imported Hereford bull, shows the back cut some times nec- 
essary to be made in dehorning. A moment's reference to 
Fig. 2 1 will show the difficulty of removing the horns from 
some cattle. Think of attempting to remove the horn from 
the brute's head in Fig. 2 1 with a stiff back saw, or with an 
ordinary meat saw either. The horn might be cut at A, 
but to cut it at C C with either of these tools would be an 
impossibility ; and yet unless removed at C C, this brute, 
which bears the head of a three year old animal, is sure to 
have a stub horn. I have removed the hair to show the 
matrix, and where it should be cut on the head. The lower 
mark C is not quite far enough in. It should appear to be 
in nearly to the point of upper C. extended. To cut this horn 
off at A would be simply to give this animal a very sore 
head — probably for a long time, with very much hemorrhage 
at the time of the operation, and with a stub that in two years 
would stand out probably two inches long, and simply spoil 
the appearance of the animal, and detract largely from his 
value in selling. Now, by the use of my saw I can remove this 
animal's horn so that when removed it will have the appear- 
ance of the horns in Figs. 18 and 22, and so that in healing the 
part will atrophy, and the hair will presently fall over the wound ; 
the bone horn will fill, and in six months' time, or as soon as 
a new crop of hair makes its appearance, the scar or cicatrix 
cannot be seen with the naked eye except upon very close 
examination. The Haaff saw will cut down into the head a 
little obliquely, and then the back cut to be made between 
the horn and the ear will strike the first cut at such a point 
as to destroy the horn and enable the hole to properly fill. 

I wish just for one moment to call the reader's attention to 
Fig. 6. The difference in the two methods of dehorning named 
is plainly shown in Fig. 6. Facing the reader is a point, ap- 
parently a half inch or so, which was properly dehorned. It 
will be seen how the healing process has carried the shell horn 



54 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

in, while for three-quarters the way around the shell horn has 
begun to grow out already. The reader can see how the 
animal would probably look in Fig. 21, with one horn dehorn- 
ed after the proper manner shown in Fig. 6, and the other 
dehorned improperly. 

I wish to call the reader's attention in this connection to Fig. 
3. This figure shows the horn of a two-year-old properly 
removed. S shows the end or termination of the shell horn ; 
M M is part of the matrix removed in the operation of dehorn- 
ing; are the orifices opening into the frontal sinuses of 
the head, and in this case a bar is shown between the two. I 
call attention to this horn for the purpose of showing how 
differently the shell horn appears in some cases than it does 
in others. It will be observed that the shell in this case does 
not extend to the base of the head, and it is for this reason 
that I have so persistently urged upon my pupils the necessity 
of making a different cut in older calves, yearlings, and 
some two-year-olds from that made in the case of older cattle. 
I call it " shaping the head." The power or capacity of nature 
for " pulling in " or healing the bone horn seems to alter 
or change after the brute has become two years old, and 
the reader must exercise some judgment in these cases, or 
he will be likely to have some stub horns. 

Fig. 20 shows the formation of the upper part or parts of 
the skull bone connected with the horn, and shows also the 
shell horn as looked at from the inside. In this figure B 
marks the location of the brain; P W stands for parietal wall, 
F F are frontal sinuses ; F B is the frontal bone ; P the 
periostum and matrix ; S is the point where the shell bone 
begins, but it does not appear in this cut. 




Ife,f2 




57 



^BTlfi 





Tig.XL 




59 



ATTITUDE OF THE RRESS AND PUBLIC 
SOCIETIES. 

Up to the great trial the notice of dehorning cattle, so far 
as the press was concerned, was confined to the agricultural 
papers of the land, and foremost among these should always 
be named the Western Rural. The Hon. James Ward Wood, 
the real editorial writer of that paper, was personally inclined to 
wage a battle in my favor, but the proprietor, the Hon. Milton 
George (who is, by the way, not only a personal friend, but is 
one of the slickest business managers I have ever known) 
would not allow a positive public indorsement of the prac- 
tice, but yet directed that the columns of his paper should be 
thrown open to the discussion of the question of dehorning, 
and once when the author had sent a particularly strong arti- 
cle-, Mr. George was careful to explain that his position was a 
position of inquiry, and this was all that the author asked of 
any paper, and this is all that any person ought to ask for any 
new theory whatever. The motto of the author toward the 
press has been that of the boy to his father who was about to 
give him a licking. Said he, "Dad strike, but hear." The 
Farmers Review, of Chicago, and its able leaders, Messrs. 
Chandler and Gibbs, opened the columns of their paper to the 
discussion of the merits of dehorning, and, having thoroughly 
understood what was claimed for this practice, they have since 
advocated its adoption by their readers. The Review is enti- 
tled to credit for forbearance and consideration ; it is an able 
paper. The Breeders Gazette, standing as it does at the very 
head of all the first-class strictly stock journals, has opened 
its columns to the author, and given by all odds the best 
account, through its Mr. Goodwin, of the convention of Feb- 
ruary, 1887, at Madison, Wis., at which time between 500 and 
1,000 farmers, legislators and others were present, and the 
session on dehorning continued from 2 p. m. until 6:30 p. m. 



ATTITUDE OF THE PRESS AND PUBLIC SOCIETIES. 6 1 

This was followed by a terse and yet satisfactory account of 
the convention at the same place, in February, 1888, at which 
it was estimated that well nigh 1,000 farmers were present to 
hear this matter discussed and by a rising vote 66 men, ac- 
cording to the Gazette, voted that they had tried dehorning 
cattle according to Mr. Haaff's plan, and that they approved 
the practice and there were no negative votes. As the author 
has insisted that the Short Horn and Hereford men will have 
to adopt the practice of dehorning in self-defence, it is fair to 
presume that the position of the editor of this paper, Mr. San- 
ders, is substantially that of two previous papers mentioned, 
to-wit : " Let the discussion proceed and let the Short Horn 
and Hereford men decide it for themselves," and this is all the 
author asks. The truth of the matter is that these breeds of 
cattle are going to be qrossed with the polled breeds of cattle. 
The author has called the attention of the Short Horn and 
Hereford men to this matter before, and he now reiterates his 
previous statement : You Short Horn and Hereford gentlemen 
will adopt the practice of dehorning cattle, or you will find 
that your customers will have left you ; for the farmers of this 
country are going to use polled bulls in the immediate future, 
unless they can be satisfied that we can have polled races of 
Short Horn and Hereford cattle. I am free to say that it 
is my belief that before two years have elapsed the Breeder's 
Gazette will come to the front and acknowledge the truth of 
my proposition, and will simply say to the Short Horn men as 
I have done, " Gentlemen, there is no use in attempting to fight 
what is decreed by fate. " "The horns must go," and your 
breeds of cattle must accept one or the other horn of this 
dilemma ; either dehorn your cattle and help Mr. Haaff and 
the other advocates of the practice in their attempt to develop 
a race of hornless Durham and Hereford cattle, or else 
open your eyes to the fact that ninety per cent, of all the cat- 
tle men of this continent, from the long-horned Texas Racer 
to the Butter Jersey are going to adopt dehorning as a prac- 
tice, and grow nothing but polled cattle. I know that some 



62 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

of the best cattle men in the ranks of that class of men who 
have made the Breeder's Gazette what it is, the leading expo- 
nent of the high bred cattle trade in these United States, have 
already adopted the practice, and are publicly advising their 
friends to do the same. I used to class the Breeder's Gazette 
among the Scribes and Pharisees, and I was not a little sur- 
prised to find that paper give place to such men as its asso- 
ciate editor, Mr. Goodwin, Prof. Henry and others, who are 
open advocates of the practice. It is refreshing to know that 
the number of Scribes and Pharisees is so beautifully small 
and growing less. I have never yet heard that the National 
Livestock Journal is a friend to the practice — in fact, I have 
somewhere a letter from its secretary which would seem to 
indicate that that journal is on the offside; I guess the Coun- 
try Gentle7nan don't know yet whether it is afoot or ahorse- 
back on this question. So far as the Jersey Bulletin and 
Hoard's Dairyman are concerned, they are the only Sadducees 
that I know of. There is a paper called the Michigan Farmer, 
which is said to oppose dehorning ; but I do not characterize 
this paper, for I don't know that it is as yet sufficiently ac- 
quainted with the practice to speak understandingly. The 
Ohio Farmer has been kindly disposed and seemingly willing 
that the discussion should occupy a fair place in its columns. 
In New York and New Jersey The Rural New Yorker and 
Orange County Farmer have occupied during the year about 
the same position of active investigation as that occupied by 
the Western Rural and Farmer's Review \ A year ago the New 
England Farmer and the Massachusetts Ploughman turned 
smiling faces towards the author, and have been willing to 
aid in the investigation ; both editor Cheever, of the former, 
and editor Noyes, of the latter, have urged the author to come 
to Boston and preside at one of their farmers' conventions, 
assuring him that his presence at such a meeting would do 
much toward starting the dehorning boom in New England. 
The Farm and Home, of Springfield, Mass., and the Farm and 
Fireside, of Springfield,' Ohio, with their enormous lists of 



ATTITUDE OF THE PRESS AND PUBLIC SOCIETIES. 63 

subscribers, have also to be numbered among this year's advo- 
cates of the practice. Turning to the extreme west, the Live- 
stock Indicator, of Kansas City, has come out boldly, and edi- 
torially declares that " Horns Must Go ; " while the Iowa 
Homestead of Des Moines, Iowa, Farm, Stock and Home, of 
Minnesota, among the best papers of the Northwest, are open 
advocates of the practice. It may seem invidious to distin- 
guish where so many are willing to teach the people; but I 
deem it proper to mention those papers, nothing detracting or 
abating from the good will I bear all the rest, and which I hope 
they bear me, for the sake of the cause. The weekly metropol- 
itan papers like the Tribune and, Inter Ocean, of Chicago, Plain- 
dealer, of Ohio> Democrat, of St. Louis, World of New York 
city, and many others have discussed the subject during the 
last year because they have observed that it was a subject of 
great interest to the farming population. If, as I believe, a 
half a million of cattle have been dehorned this year, where so 
many papers are seeking to teach the people it is safe to say 
that a million and a half of cattle will lose their horns the 
next year, provided always we shall be able to so instruct 
the owners that they can perform the operation prop- 
erly, The Dairy World, of Chicago, a young yet very enter- 
prising journal, whose editor, Mr. Birch, has been most liberal 
in his offer of premiums at our western dairy shows, and who 
has been personally of service to the cause among the dairy- 
men has opened the columns of his paper to the advocacy of 
this practice, so that Chicago has come to be a sort of head 
center of the friends of dehorning. 

I have had occasion to refer to the incongruous course 
taken by the State Board of Agriculture of Illinois in refer- 
ence to the subject of dehorning cattle, and I have lived to 
see the members of that Board individually eat their own 
words. I have taken occasion to contrast their mulish ob- 
stinacy in refusirfg, at my request, to even give the subject of 
dehorning their undivided attention for the space of ten 
minutes, while at the same session of their Board they gave 



64 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

Armour's cotton seed oil and oleomargarine men over an 
hour. They have lived to see that they lost an opportunity. 
They have come to know that the discussion of this subject 
fills the largest room in any interior town at the holding of 
their institutes, and they fully understand that the hour at 
which the subject of dehorning cattle comes up marks the 
biggest crowd of that series of meetings. All this is the 
logic of events, and from a manner dictatorial and full of 
spleen, I am happy to say they are now inclined to do the 
subject justice and give it a fair hearing. 

The State Board of Agriculture of Wisconsin adopted a far 
different course. At their session at Madison, in February, 1887, 
there were not more than two of their officers who stood for 
dehorning. Professor Henry had tried it, and did not hesitate 
to say that it was worthy the trouble of investigation, and 
ought to receive careful attention and proper consideration. 
The professor is known as a very conservative man ; a man of 
splendid natural abilities ; of great powers of reasoning and 
demonstration ; clear as a bell in his ideas, and choice in his 
language, he is at the same time slow in coming to conclu- 
sions, and he is very properly looked up to by not only the 
Board of Agriculture of his own state and the entire round of 
farming population as the head center of all that pertains to 
the cause of advanced agriculture in that state, but he is fairly 
allotted the front place to-day as a national experimental 
teacher, and the national representative of the agricultural 
interests of the land, standing, as Gladstone himself does, 
head and shoulders above his peers, so, too, Professor Henry, 
while yet dehorning was in its infancy, without having 
heard me lecture, without having seen me operate, yet stood 
squarely on the issue, facing down all opposition, and declar- 
ing that each for himself should see, hear and decide after a 
full and thorough practical investigation whether dehorning 
cattle was a proper process and one to be recommended to 
the farmers or not. The State Board of Agriculture at the 
session of 1887 occupied the back seats in the auditorium, 



ATTITUDE OF THE PRESS AND PUBLIC SOCIETIES. 65 

and they were slow to even introduce the writer, and they 
were far from recommending the cause of dehorning ; but 
they were willing to investigate, and that is just what the 
State Board of Illinois would not do. After investigation and 
after a thorough trial at their state convention this year in 
February, 1888, at Madison, they introduced the writer and 
his discovery in the following resolutions and letter accom- 
panying: 

Madison, February 14, 1888. 

H. H. Haaff, Chicago, III. — I inclose herewith a copy of the resolutions 
passed in the agricultural convention just closed. 

The practice of dehorning cattle is spreading very rapidly through this state, 
and, when properly done, no one objects to it who is familiar with its effects. I 
have had excellent opportunities for learning how our people are pleased with the 
practice, and assure you that if the present idea prevails there will scarcely be a 
horn left in this state one year hence. 

Your lecture at our convention one year ago started the work in good earnest, 
and who shall attempt to stop it ? I hope you will continue to study the subject 
and give us in an available form the results of your investigations. 

Most respectfully, 

W. A. Henry. 

The following resolution (referred to) was introduced by 
Professor Henry, and passed unanimously : 

Whereas, Every year witnesses the destruction of human lives in this state 
by vicious bulls ; 

And, Whereas, Our horned cattle continually mutilate and injure each other, 
as well as other animals on the farm, with their horns, which in these days have 
become a useless appendage ; 

And, Whereas, Certain self-styled humanitarians have endeavored to excite 
prejudice against the practice : 

Therefore, Resolved, That it is the sense of this convention, based upon the 
numerous reports of members present, that the practice of dehorning, as set forth 
by Mr. Haaff, is a humane act both for man and beast, since the pain caused by 
the operation is but a tithe of that which might ensue if the horns were not re- 
moved. 

A vote was taken, and of the large attendance, towards a 
thousand farmers, sixty-six men by actual count were found 
who had tried dehorning; and when asked if any one of the 
audience had anything to say against the practice, not a single 
word, not a single negative voice nor a single objection was 



66 



THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 



raised. Secretary Newton was the one man of the State Board 
of Agriculture of Wisconsin who insisted upon having the 
matter presented at the meeting of 1887, and he did so, fully 
determined that the cause should be presented even though 
done at his own private expense. This year, however, not a 
member of the Board but that greeted the writer, and was 
ready to applaud all that is claimed as advantageous to the 
farmer in dehorning. 

Perhaps this side of the picture will not be complete 
without adding that at the recent meeting of three 
or four hundred farmers at Woodstock, McHenry County, 
Illinois, in the very center of the dairy district of Northern 
Illinois and Southern Wisconsin, not a farmer of all the 
hundreds present at the institute was found to say a word 
or give a vote against the practice of dehorning, either on the 
farm or the dairy, but nearly or quite fifty farmers were found 
who voted like the sixty- six at Madison, Wis. This meeting 
occurred in the presence of the President of the State Board 
of Agriculture of Illinois, and quite a number of the members 
of the Board, its Secretary and leading officials, and not one 
of them had either question or objection to present. It is a 
source of great personal satisfaction to the author to know 
that the Agricultural Boards of these two great states are 
substantially solid now in favor of the practice. 



THE SCRIBES AND PHARISEES. 

Perhaps it is not strange that so startling an innovation 
as dehorning should stir up opposition of the most pugna- 
cious character and defiant kind. It is with feelings of pride, 
if not of gratitude, that I recount the names of those agri- 
cultural and other papers which have been veritable sheet 
anchors to the author in the great public contest, for nearly 
two years past, over the question of dehorning cattle. 
There is a unanimity of sentiment and a coincidence of 



THE SCRIBES AND PHARISEES. 67 

experience from one end of these United States to the other 
that is simply startling when contemplated; for with little 
exception, not only the leading live stock and agricultural 
papers, and I may say without exception that the cattle- men 
and farmers who have practiced dehorning, or who have 
seen the results in the practice are the friends and firm sup- 
porters of the art as an economy on the farm, a safety to 
the individual and a kindness to the brute. I notice one 
or two opponents by name farther along. 

But to return to the other side — the other picture. 
There is in Northern Illinois a society known as the Northern 
Illinois Dairyman's Association. At its recent annual meeting 
held at Mt. Carroll, 111., the writer received a letter from one of 
his friends, and a prominent member of that association, Mr. 
Garfield, who read at the convention an able article on the sub- 
ject of dehorning cattle, strongly recommending the prac- 
tice. The writer was invited to, and did attend, that convention. 
The secretary of that convention expressed himself as highly 
pleased that "Dr." HaafT, as he put it, was going to attend. In- 
stead of giving the question of dehorning a fair chance at dis- 
cussion, as they had agreed, the chairman at that convention 
publicly snubbed the author ; sneered at the practice of de- 
horning ; and seemed highly elated when another member of 
that Dairyman's association referred in insulting language to 
the advent of any man on his place who should attempt to 
dehorn one of his brutes, and declared that he considered that 
it was just as proper to de-tail the animals as to dehorn them, 
and he would kick any man off his place who dared to talk 
about it to him at his home. As has always been the case, so 
it was at this convention. The common every-day farmers 
demanded to hear on the subject of dehorning, and although 
the author was given finally twenty minutes at an early hour 
in the morning, still there were several hundred intelligent 
farmers present to hear ; and so great was the interest that 
the chairman at that convention felt obliged to come and 
say : " Please don't lay up anything as personal of the remarks 



68 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

that I have made." The editor of the Dairy World, who was 
present, proposed, at his own expense, to publish at once the 
talk on dehorning, and illustrate it by cuts something similar 
to those in this book. It was, however, the old story of the 
Scribes and Pharisees — a sort of " I am holier than thou " 
disposition ; and it should be said to the shame of the officers 
of that association, that they have to this date neglected to 
repay the simple traveling expenses of the author to and from 
their convention. 

The Dairyman's Convention of Wisconsin was even more 
seriously afflicted with an attack of the anti-dehorning rabies, 
but this was accounted for by one who claimed to know, in 
this way. Said he: "I account for it on this principle: they 
are all Democrats, and they don't get their eyes open until 
about the ninth year after any new matter is presented to 
them." The author will rejoice when the Dairyman's Associ- 
ation of Northern Illinois becomes converted to dehorning, and 
he will be equally glad when the Dairyman's Association of 
Wisconsin takes a similar position. 



HORNS vs. " BUTTER POTENCY." 

The following letters open up a question on the subject of 
dehorning unusual to the common farmer and unique of its 
kind. It will be understood that Mr. Hoard is the editor 
of a Wisconsin dairy paper, called Hoard's Dairyman. 
He is understood to be a mouth-piece and exponent of Jersey 
and Guernsey cattle. The G.'s and J.'s shed their horns 
hard. The Jersey Bulletin is another paper opposed to 
dehorning. 

In order that the dairymen of Wisconsin might have an 
opportunity to consider this matter and discuss it if they saw 
fit, the author addressed the following letter to the editor of 
that paper. The letter is as follows : 



HORNS VS. " BUTTER POTENCY." 69 

Dear Sir: Among the leading agricultural papers of the 
land yours is the only one that I now recollect worthy of no- 
tice — that is, so far as I know — silent on the subject of dehorn- 
ing cattle. It is not improbable that a discussion of this 
question in your columns might do the public good, as has been 
done by other papers. If agreeable to you I will take occa- 
sion to state my views in your columns, and I will send you, if 
you desire, a copy of " Haaffon Dehorning." P. S. " After this 
letter had been sealed up, my secretary read me a line from 
some other paper saying that you insist that, although there 
may be no loss of milk in dehorning, there will be a loss of 
butter. Why so? How do you know? Please tell me." 
On the bottom of my letter, which was returned me, was the 
following: " Because butter is, above all other constituents of 
the milk affected by any disturbance of the nervous system. 
The nervous system finds its origin in the brain, and dehorn- 
ing cannot but seriously affect both brain and nervous system, 
I am decidedly opposed to dehorning for male or female in any 
of the butter breeds, where I care for the transmission of but- 
ter potency or heredity. It may do well enough for the beef 
breeds. I want none of it for either Jerseys or Guernseys." 
To this the author again wrote in reply, objecting that the edi- 
tor's dictum ought not to be taken as proof, and that his con- 
clusions were more likely to be erroneous than not, since he 
had had no personal experience in the matter of dehorning 
cattle ; and again asked this question : " Do you care to have 
the matter discussed in the columns of your paper? " To this 
second letter came the following reply : " H. H. Haaff, Chi- 
cago : Yours of the 2d at hand. If you or any other man 
would come forward with facts, not presumptions, showing 
that the dehorned Jersey or Guernsey bull does not lose ' but- 
ter potency ' of transmission through dehorning, I will admit 
such facts to my columns ; but I want facts, not opinions. The 
burden of proof rests upon you and the advocates of dehorn- 
ing. We know what the ' potent bull ' will do in the trans- 
mission before his horns are off; it is incumbent on you to 



70 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

show that his heifers are just as good after he is dehorned as 
those before he was dehorned ; and the gravity of the case 
demands a big showing in this specific line, or else the horns on 
my bull will stay where they are!' These letters must be taken 
in connection with the editor's paper in discussing the subject. 
It will be observed that the editor cuts the author's legs off 
" up under his chin " at one fell swoop, for as dehorning is not 
more than two years old — in fact, is not two years old so far as 
the public is concerned — and as dehorning was never men- 
tioned, much less discussed, in the editor's paper until within 
the last few months, it will be seen how physically impossible 
it would be to give " facts" — that is, such facts as are demanded, 
in order to prove that " butter potency " and " butter potent 
bulls " and " butter potency of transmission" have suffered no 
damage by reason of dehorning. It would be necessary, of 
course, to take the calves of dehorned male and female Jerseys 
or Guernseys and grow them to maturity, and then both as 
heifers and old cows showthatthe supply and quality of butter is 
no less than in the ancestors. It would also be necessary to raise 
the calves of these heifers or cows, and again by actual experi- 
ment on the third generation demonstrate the same fact. This 
could be done probably in from 10 to 15 years, by which time 
the chances are that the editor may be dead, and his paper 
forgotten. His theorizing on the subject of " butter potency" 
(Heaven save the mark !) is a fine specimen of special pleading. 
The author has seen several columns of it in his paper, but 
not a single word of reply has been allowed by any of the 
principal advocates of dehorning. But there has crept into the 
columns of his paper the following from one of his subscribers, 
which I give in full. The article is headed, " Effects of De- 
horning," signed J. K. Brown, of Amy, Wisconsin, and it will 
be seen from this record of four cows, that No. I gave at five 
milkings after the date of dehorning nine pounds more of 
milk ; No. 2, three pounds ; No 3, one pound, and No. 4 lost 
one pound ; and No. 4, the writer says, is " the poorest feeder 
in the lot." I give the following verbatim from the letter : 



HORNS VS. BUTTER POTENCY. 71 

" Now for the effect on the habits of the animal. During the 
fly season the cattle while feeding would keep together like a 
flock of sheep to escape the flies, and we believe by that we 
gain many times what we may have lost at the time of dehorn- 
ing. Such is the effect of one year's trial on a man whom it 
had taken months to persuade to allow the trial of one animal 
by dehorning." The editor's theorizing on the subject of 
" butterpotency " and " butter transmission " after such an ex- 
periment will amount to but very little. He dared not omit 
to give the testimony of one of his own subscribers, although 
he was so ready and willing to summarily snub any discussion 
of the question by the author. 

It will be seen by Mr. Hoard's letter that he expresses him- 
self fearful that dehorning may do away in part, at least, with 
the pre-potency of G.'s and J.'s as butter breeds of cattle. 
Well, this much may be safely affirmed: by dehorning they 
will become "better" breeds of cattle, whether they are "butter" 
breeds or not. But seriously, why should Mr. Hoard and his 
clan fear. In his own State of Wisconsin, many men who are 
extensive breeders, and I believe some also importers of 
Jersey stock, having tried dehorning are so well pleased with 
the results, that they are open advocates of the process. How 
can the (butter potency,) as Mr. Hoard pleases to term 
it, be affected by dehorning ? We have already shown that 
the circulation of blood through the membrane of the horn 
is very slow and of a secondary character, and that by my 
process of dehorning it can be so suddenly stopped that no 
hemorrhage worth mentioning will result. We have shown 
by thousands of cases, that dehorned cattle, whether they be 
J.'s or H.'s, G.'s or S. H.'s, care little or nothing for the opera- 
tion, perform all the functions of the body immediately after 
being dehorned, even to rumination and copulation, and that 
apparently the only pain they suffer is the mere momentary 
shock; that it is, by the testimony of competent judges much 
less painful than branding, far less painful than castration or 
spaying, and even less so than the operation of pulling a tooth ; 



/2 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

for cattle which are dehorned will immediately drink ; they will 
eat, they will chew the cud, they will offer fight to others of their 
kind ; while the brute that may have had a tooth pulled has 
been known to stand for hours in a dumpy condition, and the 
author has known cases of castration where the animal would 
positively faint away ; and he has known like results after the 
simple operation of branding. 

If this class of opponents propose to do away with dehorn- 
ing on the ground that the butter qualities of their favorite 
brutes will be affected, it would seem as a matter of consist- 
ency that they should, during the last generation of personal 
activity, have been engaged at least in the laudable attempt to 
do away with branding or castration, or in fact any physical 
operation that may become necessary to the usefulness and 
betterment of the animal operated upon. 

No one has ever heard any of these self-styled humanita- 
rians complain of any operation found necessary among the 
breeders and cow-boys, and if the shock is to affect the "butter 
potency " of those brutes, why will it not equally affect the beef 
potency of the other breeds ? It will be up-hill work and hard 
sledding for those editors, and their ally, the "hoss doctor," 
and the so-called humane society agents, to convince people 
that it is perfectly right (as Mr. Hoard admits it may be) to 
dehorn the beef-breeds and not to dehorn the butter breeds. 
" Butter potency" is good, but beef potency is just as good. 

Gentlemen, you will find yourselves in the vocative, and it 
is only a question of a very short time until you will find 
yourselves without a corporal's guard of followers. Nor can 
you down dehorning by calling it a " craze." 

It must be a matter of peculiar vexation to this man to hear 
such men as made up the Farmers' Convention of his own 
state declaring openly, "that in less than two years' time, there 
will be more cattle in the state of Wisconsin, among the dairy- 
men, without horns than with." But the "animus of the 
critter" is apparent, and it reminds me of one of their number 
who stood up at a farmers' institute, and loudly declaimed 



HORNS VS. BUTTER POTENCY. 73 

against dehorning as inhuman and cruel, while a short time 
before this man had actually sold one of his neighbors a bull, 
and a " potent butter bull " at that, which had killed the neigh- 
bor outright a short time after his purchase. The rest of us 
who are unprejudiced in this matter, and who are willing to 
look at the subject, and treat it from the stand-point of actual 
benefits, know that of all the wicked breeds of cattle, the 
Jerseys and Guernseys cannot be matched. We know that 
three-quarters of all the bulls, and at certain times many of 
the cows, are unsafe to handle on account of their horns. 
We know, and so does the editor know, that every year the 
death record is more largely increased by reason of the " ner- 
vous" maliciousness of these cattle than from any other breeds 
in proportion to their numbers. We know, and so does the 
editor know, that when it is in proof (and the proof is abund- 
ant) that Jersey and Guernsey cows give as much milk after de- 
horning as before, it is simply " pop-cock " talk for any man, 
even though he be a " so-called editah," to reason against 
facts so palpably truthful in their conclusions as these. 
We know, and so does the editor know, that if every Jersey 
and Guernsey animal in these United States were dehorned 
there would be more and not less of " butter potent " quali- 
ties, for the reason that these breeds of cattle, which he' him- 
self claims and admits to be "of an unusually nervous char- 
acter," would, by reason of being dehorned, have less fear of 
each other, and would hence become less nervous in their tem- 
perament, and being less so would therefore be more quiet, 
and hence would give more milk, and certainly better milk, 
and therefore more butter. All this the editor knows. All 
this the Wisconsin Dairyman's Association knows. All this 
the Illinois Northern Dairyman's Association knows, and its 
pesky officials know ; but they are simply bound into nasty 
little rings, and being in the ring they propose to continue their 
little ringlets after their own order and dispensation of affairs ; 
and we know, and so do they know, that within the past three 
months they or some of them have allied themselves to the 



74 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

Humane Society (Heaven save the mark again!) so-called, of 
Milwaukee, the officials of which society have been making 
divers and sundry threats of prosecution, and one of whose 
veterinary surgeons, a man who spells his I's with a " Hi," 
and pronounces his horns without a h, has threatened the 
State Board of Agriculture of Wisconsin with prosecution for 
libel for daring to print similar comments made by the author 
in his address on this subject before the State Board in 1887. 
They constitute among themselves, all of them, a dirty little 
ring, and they are to Wisconsin and Illinois and to their grand 
thousands of farmers what a bevy of tree-toads are to a boom 
of artillery ; but they constitute the only known public oppo- 
sition in those states to the practice of dehorning, and they 
will meet the same ignominious death and burial by the public 
that overtook the Humane Society of Illinois something like 
two years since. 

If a Jersey old cus- 
Tomer stirs up a muss 

About the " horns " of his "butter potent bull," 
What plan shall be taken 
To prove him mistaken, 

That others may see he's a fool? 

We'll stand him (agree ?) 
In a wide open sea 

Of tubs and butter crocks full ; 
Then let him decide ? 
When each sample he's tried, 

Which came from his " horn potent bull." 

In a million of years, 

When he's shed enough tears, 

And dried up his nonsensical sputter, 
Old Nick may slip the noose 
And let him go loose 

If he'll shut on "bull potent butter." 

The author stood one day, some months since, at the stock 
yards and saw a car load of bulls unloaded into the yard by 
themselves ; there were probably no less than fifteen or eigh- 



HORNS VS. BUTTER POTENCY. 75 

teen big, heavy, savage-looking short-horn grade bulls. There 
came out of the car one little pusillanimous, black-pointed, 
devil-eyed, keen-scented Jersey bull. The rest of the ani- 
mals, worn by their long confinement, were well content to 
lie down or stand in a condition of repose ; they were satis- 
fied, when food and water was given them to eat, to let 
the others eat and drink — taking, of course, the order of pre ■ 
cedence, common among all horned animals, that the bosses 
should eat and drink first ; but the little Jersey, with his black 
points and black-pointed horns, instead of spending his time 
with the food and water or in seeking repose, actually whipped 
every bull in that yard — nor did he rest content until he had 
gored and mangled in a shocking manner many of those ani- 
mals, and two of them to such an extent that they actually 
lay down and simply groaned in misery, receiving the Jersey's 
thrusts without attempting to escape or offer the slightest re- 
sistance. I never saw such a case of cruelty to animals in my 
life. I have had the cold horns of a Jersey — one of those 
" nice, gentle little heifers," you know — run up my own back 
between skin and clothes, and I have felt myself lifted off my 
feet, when I escaped as by a miracle ; but I confess the horror 
was not so intense, nor was the perspiration more plainly per- 
ceptible on my face, than in seeing this wicked little devil do 
his desire upon his associates in that pen, and I confess that 
the wickedness of heart and baseness of desire is only 
equalled in the case of the human brutes to whom the bulls 
were shipped, and who stood by and coolly witnessed " the 
fun " without attempting to relieve the situation or possibly in 
the case of the cranky editor or hypocritical " V.S.," who know 
that Jerseys and Guernseys, as a rule, are given to such dis- 
plays of their animal ferocity when occasion offers, not only 
upon themselves and their kind but upon humans also. 

The following letter from a Mr. Gardner, a leading official 
of the Orange county (New York) Farmers' Club, and a man 
so high in' the estimation of the Rural New Yorker and the 
Orange County Farmer that both these great papers sent edi- 



/6 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

torial representatives to witness Mr. Gardner's experiments, 
will be read with interest, especially because Orange county, 
New York, is the very center of the dairy and milk interest of 
that state. The letter is dated February 20, 1888, at Orange 
county, New York. It reads as follows : 

Dear Professor Haaff — There is such an interest in this section to see what 
you, the great original dehorner, look like, that we kindly ask you to send us your 
picture. We want it at our club. Well, the dehorning leaven begins to work. I 
dehorned a Holstein bull twenty miles away, and now two men want me to. go 
twelve miles away to dehorn two bulls., one a registered Holstein. A singular 
bull accident happened here a few days ago. A party of men were riding along 
the highway; one of the men had a red tippet on, flying in the wind; a Jersey bull, 
then being in his owner's yard, saw this tippet and took it for a banter, and leaped 
the fence and pitched into the sleigh when they got opposite, and he then and 
there threw the driver over the fence, breaking three ribs for him ; then the horses 
ran away, and the bull took after them full gallop. I think these men will be 
converts to dehorning. Congress ought to recognize your services in the interests 
of humanity, and vote you a gold medal as big as a dinner-plate. 

Sincerely yours, 

M. H.'C. Gardner. 

I wonder if that Jersey bull has preserved his " butter 
potent " qualities ; or whether the " butter potent " qualities 
left him during the chase and settled in his horns. One thing 
is certain, if he lacks the power of transmitting his qualities to 
his progeny, humanity will be better off, even though the 
editor of Hoard's ~Dairyma?t and men of his caliber shall be 
displeased at the result. 

The following editorial on the subject of dehorning from 
the Massachusetts Ploughman of January 7, 1888, is good 
reading at this point: 

"DEHORNING." 

Massachusetts Ploughman, Jan. 7, 1888. 

It is universally conceded now that it is an advantage, both 
to man and beast, to have cattle devoid of horns. In the wild, 
natural state the horn was necessary as a means of defence. 
But that time has passed ; and now the owner takes such care 
of his stock that they have no need to defend themselves, and 



HORNS VS. " BUTTER POTENCY." 77 

the horn is a nuisance, an incumbrance. The amount of in- 
jury done by the horn is not easily estimated. The most 
serious injury is, of course, that to human life and limb. This 
is estimated mildly at 200 each year in the United States 
alone. Ugly cows and vicious bulls tear and permanently in- 
jure many whose lives are retained. Many animals are in- 
jured and a great number killed by horn thrusts. Most of 
the abortion is caused by ugly or accidental blows from the 
horns. Much of the loss in shipping cattle comes from the 
same cause. Thus it is readily seen that it will be a great 
advantage if the horns can be dispensed with. The better and 
more humane way is to breed off, and adopt such breeds as 
the " Polled Angus," " Norfolk " and " Galloway." But, while 
these breeds have no horns now, it is well-known that most of 
the polled herds were horned cattle less than a hundred years 
ago. (Every word true ; they all had horns.) 

We are attached to our "Jerseys," our " Holsteins," "Ayr- 
shires," " Guernseys," and other breeds, and dislike to forego 
them for no-horn breeds ; and then comes another solution to 
the problem, that of " dehorning." 

Horses are happy with bare feet when in a wild state, but 
when they are domesticated it becomes necessary to give 
them shoes and provide for the wearing away of the hoof. 
The domesticated animal must have different treatment from 
that which is congenial to wild animals. If we take cattle 
under our protection it is our right and our business to pro- 
tect ourselves and them. If the horns are a hindrance, which 
it is proven, they should be removed if the process can be 
done safely. H. H. Haaff, the apostle of " dehorning" reached 
the decision that "horns must go, " after exciting experiences, 
which included the goring of a neighbor, his own wife, the 
hired girl, many colts, hogs and cattle, and even attacks upon 
himself. He grew to hate horns, and, finally driven to desper- 
ation, he resolved to try the experiment. He selected his best 
cow and sawed off her horns. It was a painful operation, re- 
sulting in much loss of blood, and a very sore head, but the 



yS THE PRACTICAL DEHOKNER. 

cow gave as much milk as ever and lived the " best cow" for 
many years. His second experiment was to saw the horns 
off half way down; but this was awful, and he decided to kill 
one animal at least and find out what there was in it. Conse- 
quently he sawed the horns off close to the head, choosing of 
course his ugliest animal ; and the result was not death. But 
the moment the horns were off and the animal set free, he 
tossed his head and went to eating. From that day he has 
been a "dehorner." He has received many severe attacks 
from opponents, but he seems to have the best of it. 

Ugly animals that have been " men-killers," divested of 
their horns, become mild and docile as a lamb. He keeps 250 
cattle, in a shed 30 x 160 feet, which would not be possible to 
contain 100 head if the horns were retained. He keeps them 
in this way warmer and more quiet and thus saves one-fourth 
of his hay ; and as the cattle can then be kept in the barns, 
manure is housed and saved from the waste that is common 
around sheds and stables. He answers the shipping problem 
by asking for a car with no protuberances and no horns on the 
cattle. He says : " Give me the losses by horns in the states 
alone, on the small farms, and at the houses of every-day peo- 
ple, and I will become a Croesus in wealth in ten years." 

The subject seems to resolve itself into this: " Horns must 
go," as far as possible by breeding off, otherwise by dehorn- 
ing. The dehorning need not be continued, for after a few 
generations the horns will cease of themselves to be. The 
dehorning should not be attempted by the ordinary farmer, 
but only by the skilled veterinarian. As far as possible the 
work should be done with young calves ; but if grown to 
maturity, it may still be safely undertaken by the skilled and 
practiced hand ; and " Haaff's Practical Dehorner " will make 
every man his own dehorner. 



SOME LETTERS. 

Possibly it will not be uninteresting to my readers if I 
devote a few pages to extracts from letters received from 
various parties all over these United States on the subject 
of dehorning cattle. I shall give my readers the dates of 
the letters, the names and addresses of the parties, so that 
any one can verify the truthfulness of the extracts which I 
offer. The following is from the editor of the Live Stock 
Indicator : 

When the subject of dehorning cattle was first brought into public prominence 
by the arrest of its originator, at the instance of the Humane Society in Illinois, 
upon the charge of " cruelty to animals, " hundreds of stockmen who had never 
before dreamed of such a method of preventing injuries among their herds, be- 
came eager to learn the process by which their unruly horned animals could be 
controlled, and it is a safe assertion that the prosecution of Mr. Haaff was a better 
means than he himself could have thought of to bring forward the advantages to 
the farmer resulting from the dehorning of their herds. 

As early as September of that year the Live Stock Indicator editorially in- 
dorsed the dehorning idea, and a little later raised its voice emphatically in favor 
of the removal of the horns — the first journal having the courage to do so; and 
to-day, less than two years since Mr. Haaff s prosecution, which resulted, as is 
well known, in his acquittal and complete vindication, it is a fact that the horns 
have been removed from at least 200,000 cattle in the West alone, and that as 
many more will be dehorned this year does not admit of doubt. Wherever the 
experiment has been tried, new converts have been found, and in not a single 
instance have we heard of any losses resulting from the operation. 

The only argument against the practice comes from that class of persons who 
can see only that it is a cruel operation. It is, indeed, painful, and hence they say 
it is contrary to Christianity as well as humanity. Yet these same persons never 
flinch when an animal is to be spayed or castrated, or branded with a red-hot 
iron, because, forsooth, that has been practiced so long that it acts upon these 
people about as Pope says of sin in his " Essay on Man : " — 

Vice is a monster of such frightful mien, 
That to be hated needs but to be seen ; 
Yet seen too oft, familiar with its face, 
We first endure, then pity, then embrace. 

But when we consider that by this one act of severity (if it may be so ad- 
mitted), we prevent hundreds of other acts of cruelty perpetrated by the animals 

79 



80 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

themselves, the so-called heartlessness of him who undertakes to dehorn his ani- 
mals entirely disappears. Men of superior intellect are not slow to adopt new 
measures in controlling the brute creation (as the Almighty intended they should 
be controlled), any more than they are to follow in the wake of the "cranks " who 
first put to use steam and electricity. The world moves, and notwithstanding 
most great men who have brought forward new ideas, have been persecuted by 
their fellows, yet the very persecutions they had to undergo were the best means 
of carrying their ideas forward, until finally they were adopted by the intelligence 
of the civilized world. 

So, too, will it be with dehorning cattle, and while we do not expect that the 
present generation of breeders of pure-bred horned animals will have the courage 
to undertake the work, time will eventually prove that it is a wise procedure, and 
though it may take long years to completely eradicate the horns, yet we are con- 
vinced that the " horns must go ! " Yours truly, 

P. D. ETUE. 

Mr. A. A. Carter, of Dell Rapids, Dak., says under date 
of Feb. 23, 1888 : "Am having splendid success. Took 
off the horns from a yoke of oxen yesterday. They meas- 
ured 2>7/% inches at the base. Hurrah for Haaff !" 

Mr. J. L. Sawyer, Gurney, 111., says : " Dehorning works 
like a charm. It adds a good many dollars to the value of 
an animal to dehorn it." 

Mr. H. C. Constance, New Richmond, Wis., says : " De- 
horned quite a number of cattle this winter. Have 200 
head to dehorn this spring. Have taken the hook out of 
several bulls — 1,800 pound fellows. Have some more of 
the same sort on hand yet to dehorn. It is a clean thing, and 
you ought to be pensioned for finding it out." 

Mr. E. R. Morris, Marengo, 111., uses a couple of pulleys, 
and sends cut of his plan by which he makes the binding of 
the head an easy operation ; but he says : " If you get out 
a new book I want one. I got your old book of you at 
the State Fair at Chicago. I hope my idea may do you 
some good." 

Mr. J. Bishop, Jr., of Delphos, Kas., writing for tools, 
says : "I have dehorned with your tools over 1,000 head 
this winter without accident. Everyone well pleased. More 



some 'Letters. 8i 

jobs ahead. Am making model of my portable stanchion; 
will send by mail as soon as I get time. Capt. Pierce, of 
Junction City, has been trying dehorning by Mr. B. on sev- 
eral hundred head with much satisfaction. It adds vastly to 
shed room for cattle; promotes comfort in cold weather. 
Dehorned cattle are friendly, crowd together, and warm 
each other, instead of that eternal goring, horning in large 
herds. It takes about a minute to dehorn an ox, but little 
pain, and they at once very contentedly go to feeding. Capt. 
Bishop is now engaged east of Minneapolis, where he has 
several herds to dehorn. Dehorned already in this vicinity 
over 300. The whole country seems interested in this late 
move of depriving cattle of their destructive instruments. 
Have talked with many persons who have had their cattle 
dehorned. All declare it is a paying investment for stock- 
men." Mr. B. has, since writing the above, sent a model of 
his plan, and, I regret, too late to show it here. 

Mr. John Erb, of Keokuk, Iowa, says: "I am pleased 
to know you have had tools made for this business of de- 
horning ; for I think you are the man to know what is nec- 
essary for success, and I know you are not guessing at what 
you write, but you give us facts. I have proved by experi- 
ence what you say about calves, for I tried to dehorn some 
with a knife, and though I was very careful to get all the 
horn out, I found in nearly every case that the embryo 
horn, as you call it, was bound to come, and a second oper- 
ation was necessary with your tools to make a good mulley. 
I have a Jersey cow fourteen years old, heavy in calf, a 
"devil to hook;" do you think there is any danger in de- 
horning her in the present condition?" Answer. — There 
is no danger in dehorning her one hour before labor pains 
begin, provided my chute is used, and care is exercised, and 
the hind bar which goes under the brute forward of the 
udder is omitted. Put the front bar under her and omit the 
hind bar. 



b2 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

Mr. E. Hermance, of Eldorado, Mo., says: "A neigh- 
bor and I have your tools for dehorning, but we are a little 
unsettled as to the best time to have the work done. Part 
of our catde are running to straw stacks, and will be most 
of the winter. To do the work now (first of January), will 
they not get straw and chaff in their heads, as the removing 
of the horn exposes hollows which are liable to fill with chaff 
or dirt? Will it not injure them ? How long will it take 
young two-year-olds and cows to heal ? " Answer. — If these 
cattle have the run of good sheds in connection with their 
straw stacks, they will heal in from two to four weeks; and 
if in proper condition, and their heads are not bruised, there 
will be little or no suppuration of the parts. There is no 
danger of the orifices or frontal sinuses filling with straw, 
chaff or other dirt. Properly dehorned, nature will insure 
the healing up of the bone, as explained before. 

The editor of Western Resources, published at Lincoln, 
Neb., under date of January 12, says : " There is no doubt 
but that dehorning is a popular move, and the time is not far 
distant when all grades will be shorn of their implements of 
warfare. We have talked with many on the subject, and 
have yet to see the first who is dissatisfied, or hear of the 
first unsatisfactory experiment, even when done in some 
cases by inexperienced men. Success to your new boom ! " 

Mr. R. H. Stevenson, of Marion, Ohio, under date of 
January 16, says: "I wish to ask you a question. I have 
dehorned nearly 400 head of cattle. I find that some of 
last spring's calves have horns growing again. I will ask, 
Do they not have to be sawed deep enough to make a hole 
in the skull, to make a success of the work? Answer. — 
No. Use the outcutter first, as explained in the directions 
for dehorning calves, then use the gouge made sharp on the 
grindstone. The outcutter will cut clear through the hide 
and into the skull bone. The gouge will remove the hide, 
horn, underlying membrane, cartilage and all, and scrape 



SOME LETTERS. 83 

the skull, leaving the hole the size of a twenty-five cent 
piece, which will heal over so as to leave practically no 
scar. I will give a dollar per horn for each horn that you 
have if you will properly perform this operation as I direct. 

Mr. James H. Cox, of Sandwich, 111., says: " I am some- 
what perplexed regarding 20 cattle I dehorned — 20 milch 
cows. I did what I call a neat job. They eat well, and 
appear to do all right, but there is a jelly-like substance 
coming from the opening left after removing the horn. It 
is somewhat reddish in hue, and is sometimes very clear. 
Is it of any consequence? I have dehorned 133 head since 
I got your tools, and have more as soon as I can get around 
to it ; but first I am anxious to hear from you. " Answer. 
— If these cows were not bruised in the operation, and are 
not turned into the cold to stand in an exposed place part of 
the time, but have free access to a warm shed at all times, 
there will be no trouble? If they are kept in stanchions, 
they should not be put into the stanchions for a week or two, 
while their heads are healing. If there are any exceptions 
to this rule, it will be in the case of those whose heads are 
bruised, or where the blood of the animal is out of order; 
and in such case, the very best thing that can happen to the 
animal is to have a running sore for a while to clean the 
system out. 

Mr. George Tebow, of Delavan, Kan., January 31, says: 
" I wish advise on dehorning cows heavy with calf. Does 
it hurt the cows near calving time? Is it best to leave the 
belly bar out so they can set down, or shall we use it ? You 
will oblige me by answering." Answer. — Do not use the 
belly bar. Handle the animals gently and carefully. Have 
everything all ready before beginning the operation of de- 
horning them. Turn the animals loose at once. Watch 
them a little if they are quite near to calving time ; you will 
have no trouble. 

A neighbor of this gentleman, whose name I will omit 



84 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

lest it should compromise him in his own neighborhood, 
says : " I am ashamed to say that I began dehorning with 
an improper saw. Some of my cattle bled fearfully, and 
others were terribly sore for weeks; but I have learned by 
experience that I can use Haaff's saw without any such lia- 
bility. I know a greenhorn not far from here who had 
been using a common tenon saw with stiff back. He 
actually bled one animal to death, and another till it stag- 
gered. I taught him and a good many more the use of your 
saw. Let us unfurl the dehorning banner, and keep it floating 
in the breeze, and inscribe on it ' The Horns Must Go!' " 

Mr. William Young, of Palmyra, Neb., under date of 
July, 1887, sends a draft of a chute. He says he finds it 
decidedly practical. I think it unnecessary to give it, as I 
believe my own fills the bill. This gentleman, like the rest, 
has had great success in dehorning. 

Mr. J. F. Luce, of Ross, Iowa, sends description of a port- 
able chute which I should be glad to give, as he, like the 
last gentleman, is a successful dehorner, and has taught 
many how to perform the operation. These men have de- 
horned their thousands. 

Secretary Newton, of the Wisconsin State Agricultural 
Society, under date of January 4, says: "Wisconsin num- 
bers her dehorned cattle by tens of thousands. We want 
you to attend our State Convention. It will receive you 
with open arms." 

Mr. J. R. Gillus, Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, says: "I am en- 
tirely satisfied with the results of dehorning. I will never 
winter any more horns. My cattle are as docile as sheep — 
as easily handled and as easily fed. The old cows and 
yearlings drink freely together. Dehorning is a great 
reform. Now, if we can send men to Congress and to our 
Legislatures who will reduce taxation, wipe out monopo- 
lies and trusts, I don't see why farmers may not be more 
prosperous than for the last twenty years." 



SOME LETTERS. 85 

The editors of the Live Stock Indicator, under date of 
January 3, say : " We believe that an illustrated book by 
you on this subject is needed, and would make many con- 
verts. Give illustrations showing cattle before and after 
dehorning. This would convince many by comparison. 
The world, you know, is composed of cranks (else how 
could it turn on its axis?) but there are a great many men 
who refuse to own the corn, and it will take many years 
(just as it did Morse to make the other cranks believe in 
the telegraph), to convince some people that the horns are 
a useless appendage, to say nothing of their dangerous 
character." 

Mr. B. C. Stoops, of Ipava, 111., writes, asking for tools 
and instructions, and says : " My neighbors are dehorn- 
ing a good many cattle, but they are going at it in a very 
reckless manner. Instead of securing the head as you do, 
they pull it down to the ground with a long lever, and they 
gets lots of blood in the operation. I am very much taken 
with your plan of operating." Remarks. — Any man who 
will hold his brutes secure to the ground by the nose or by 
a lever deserves to suffer, not only unnecessary loss of blood, 
but the loss of some of his cattle. It is astonishing how 
some men will voluntarily lose many dollars in the futile 
effort to save one. 

Mr. W. L. Weber, of East Saginaw, Mich., says: " We 
are about beginning dehorning in this neighborhood. I have 
tried it on an ugly bull. It makes him as quiet as a calf." 

Mr. John Ashley, of Green Rock, Neb., says: "I have 
read your little book, ' Haaff on Dehorning,' and also what 
you have said in the Western Rural. You have converted 
us to the why of it, and now we write you wanting to know 
how it shall be done. I think, like lots of others, the sooner 
the horns are taken off the better. I have lost several head 
of cattle by being hooked to death, and I am getting tired 
of that kind of work. Send me your tools." 



86 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

Mr. T. E. Davis, of Eagle Lake, Minn., says: " I want 
your new way of securing the animal. I have been sawing 
off horns with a stiff back saw, but don't like it. I have 
seen and talked with other men who are dehorning in the 
same way, and they are sick of it. I have told them that 
they are wrong, and that I was wrong, and we have all de- 
termined to get your tools. Tell me how to stop bleeding 
if we should have a case — how to secure the animal with- 
out the use of a stanchion." All of which has been previ- 
ously answered. 

Mr. A. P. Frisbie, of Stewartsville, Mo., says : " I can 
do the dehorning with your tools with a good heart. I have 
been knocked down twice by a bull, and would have been 
badly hurt or perhaps killed but for timely help." 

Mr. B. F. Walton, of Yuba City, Col., says : "lam very 
much interested in this subject. As soon as I can get your 
improved tools I shall dehorn 150 head of cows and 60 
calves. I tried a few of the latter with a knife, but I need 
your tools as soon as I can possibly get them. I want ex- 
plicit directions; and, as there is no one near here who has 
witnessed the operation, I shall be obliged to rely upon your 
instructions and my own judgment. If I have not inclosed 
money enough, send along, and I will remit promptly. I 
would like your cattle tags also." 

Mr. E. H. Frye, of Starkville, Miss., says : " I have been 
reading about your method of dehorning cattle. I am in- 
terested, as I am in the dairy business. I find horns a nuis- 
ance. I have recently had several of my cows lose their 
calves, and I can give no other reason only that the other 
cows hook them. I approve of your plan. I want to know 
all about it. It is a new thing in this part of Mississippi." 

Mr. E. D. Lindley, of Winnebago, 111., says: "I am 
very much amused in reading your book at the way you 
came to dehorn your cattle, and the way your neighbors 
looked at you; but I am undergoing the same persecution 



SOME LETTERS. 87 

myself. Three weeks ago to-day I had a valuable mare 
gored to death. She died in five minutes. I had refused 
$175 for her. Less than a week since the rest of my cattle 
got at and gored my best cow till she could not walk. That 
settled it — I am done with horns. I immediately sawed off 
my cows' horns. They never shrunk a drop in milk; but 
I did not get a good job, and as I never saw an animal de- 
horned in my life, I want your tools and full instructions, 
and will you send your bill. I cannot go to town now, or 
anywhere, but I am tongue-lashed on every side. Some say 
I ought to be mobbed ; some that my cattle ought to die ; 
some that I ought to be run out of town, and so on. But I 
am beginning to win. There have been two more horses 
killed within a few miles of me since mine. Three weeks 
ago this morning I was as strongly opposed to dehorning as 
any man in the state, but I am thoroughly converted now. 
Hoping to hear from you soon, I remain your most humble 
servant." 

DEHORNER HAAFF's REPLY TO COL. DAVIDSON. 

Editor of the "Times": The letter in your last issue on 
" Dehorning Cattle," from Carthage, III, by Col. Davidson, 
is just such a letter as any gentleman might write who knows 
nothing of the subject he treats by actual experience. The 
colonel tells us that " the most diligent inquiry among farmers 
and stockmen has failed to elicit any satisfactory information 
concerning the reason for such a barbarous and unnecessary 
proceeding." Strong language that. Is it warranted by 
the facts? Let us see: 

First, the gentleman admits that " he is not a farmer nor 
does he raise stock," and yet he assumes to call the thou- 
sand men who do raise stock, who are farmers and who have 
practised dehorning during the two years last past, guilty of 
a " barbarous and unnecessary proceeding." He might with 
some show of modesty, at least, have made a fair inquiry 



OO THE PRACTICAL DEHORNEK. 

through 3 r our columns before thus openly denouncing a thing 
he knows nothing about save by hearsay. He does not 
even pretend to give us one name of any one who has tried 
dehorning, and who is, after trial, opposed to it. Before pro- 
ceeding with the proof in this argument, I wish to notice the 
authority and the only one produced. 

He tells us that Mr. John Fletcher, who, he says, is a sen- 
ator (and I do not doubt a very honorable man. So are they 
all — " all honorable men ") that this learned and distinguished 
senator " can see no benefit to be derived," and he regards 
it as a "most cruel practice," and "a foolish one, too," and 
more, " a torture to the dumb brutes," and more still, he, the 
senator, " don't think that the practice will tend to produce 
a race of hornless cattle," and again " he has seen them bleed 
after they had broken off their horns close to the skull." Ah, 
so have we all; all of us seen them bleed on such occasions, 
and the senator is no better and no worse than we plain 
farmers in that case ; I suppose both the senator and the 
colonel will agree with the writer that in these cases it 
would have been well had the animals had their horns " sawed 
off," or rather had they been properly dehorned (for I will 
not admit that the operations are identical) prior to knocking 
off their horns. Well now, Mr. Editor, up in Nebraska a 
few weeks since, I had a lot of about fifty steers out of sev- 
eral hundred with bad horns, perhaps most of them cattle 
that had been so injured by themselves or their fellows, and 
so in that case you see dehorning had quite a signal justifi- 
cation, and should not be denounced in such case as " bar- 
barous." 

2d. How do the senator or the colonel know that the 
practice is both "foolish and a torture," if they have never 
tried it. I have tried it, and I know better. One of my dis- 
ciples, Mr. Evans, of El Paso, who has dehorned 2,300 head 
since October, 1887, says it is not "foolish or a torture." So 
say all the farmers he has operated for. So says Hon. 



SOME LETTERS. 89 

P unk, of Bloomington. So says Hon. Whiting, of Peoria. 
Ah, and he is bigger than a senator, he is a congressman. 
Go to, gentlemen. We have you there on the "Hon." side 
of the argument. So, too, says Mr. Webster, of Marysville, 
Kas., who has dehorned over 10,000 head this year; so say 
his patrons; so say ten men whose names I can give who 
have each dehorned their thousands; so says every man of 
their patrons; so says Mr. Richards, of Cresco, Iowa, who 
has dehorned over 40,000 head in same time ; so says the 
Western Rural; so say the Kansas City Live Stock Indica- 
tor, Farmers'' Review, Iowa Homestead, Farm, Stock and 
Home, of Minnesota, The Ohio Farmer, and a score of other 
papers, such as the Iowa Register, Philadelphia Press, 
Cleveland Plain Dealer, etc., and yet you, the senator 
and colonel, say us nay. Sorry gentlemen, very sorry, but 
you must be tolerable lonesome about now. But yet, how 
do these men know that dehorning calves will not tend to 
produce a breed of polled cattle. Fletcher (now we will 
leave the " Hon." out) says it won't. Haaff says it will. 
Fletcher has had no experience. Haaff has had experience. 
Haaff produces some authority; Fletcher none, save his dic- 
tum, and the fact that he is, or was once, a senator, and that 
don't weigh in this back-hold wrestle. This is a clear case 
of "catch-as-catch-can" a sort of every-tub-stands-on-its-own 
bottom contest. And now, Mr. Editor, as to the allegation 
that " Ten thousand farmers demand dehorning." Here is 
the proof. 1st, I produce the names and letters of half the 
number. 2d. The state of Wisconsin, through her Agri- 
cultural Board, has put up about 70 institutes this fall and 
winter, and she is teaching the art to every farmer that at- 
tends. 3d. At least 100 county papers that we know or have 
advocated it within a month; and, 4th, we know that nearly 
10,000 copies of " Haaff on Dehorning Cattle " have gone 
out to as many homes among cattle men. I verily believe the 
number of men is twice ten thousand, and the cattle dehorned 



90 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

a round half million ; and now, sir, I am loath to stop until I 
answer the other point, namely, the advantages : In August 
last I kept a tally of casualties published in the papers, 
(so far as I could obtain them), and there were forty-three, 
and nearly all fatal, and all but one were human, and that 
one was a $2,000 stallion. I might add that dehorning will 
save one-fourth hay to stock cattle in winter, one-tenth grain 
to feeders; prevent nearly all cases of abortion, save half 
the shed room, etc.; but the colonel and senator had 
better each send me their address to box 193, Chicago, and 
let me send them a copy of " Every Man His Own Dehorn- 
er," and they will not soon again expose their ignorance on 
this great subject. 

Dehorning has come to stay. The " horns must go," and 
they are going very fast. 

H. H. Haaff. 

To the Editor of " The Livestock Indicator. " 

Sir : — Your very readable paper has stood so firmly on 
the skirmish line in its advocacy of dehorning cattle as a 
great economic measure, that it is perhaps a questionable 
question whether or not I ought to be allowed to criticise 
any of the utterances of your paper, but I think you do me 
unintentional injustice in your editorial comments on Mr. 
Webster's letter, in which you proceed to say in substance 
that cattle had been dehorned a hundred years* or so before 
my time, and that I am entitled to credit for just what I have 
done; leaving the inference to be plainly drawn that I have 
simply renewed a measure which was known and practiced 
long before my time. I wish to correct this error and to 
protest against any partnership with the Irish or English 
practice of "sawing off horns." During the four days' 
trial which I underwent against the Humane Society, it was 
abundantly proven that the custom in Great Britain of "saw- 
ing off horns " had been abolished by judicial, if not by 



SOME LETTERS. 9 I 

legislative enactment, on account of its cruelty. We should 
always keep in mind the definition of cruelty. Cruelty is "the 
infliction of unnecessary pain." It was proved that by the 
English method the cattle were made to suffer unnecessarily; 
their horns were removed without reference to having stub 
horns, for no one down to my time pretended to have dis- 
covered a way of removing horns so that no stubs would 
follow. I wish to impress this point upon the editor and 
upon your readers. My discovery consisted in this; I found 
a place at which the horn could be removed and ho stub 
horns would grow thereafter, and no bleeding or hemorrhage 
would follow of any consequence. I also discovered that 
beyond that point stub horns would surely grow every time, 
while cutting below that point would leave the orifice in the 
frontal bone in such a condition that it would never close. 
I think I should have credit for this much as my discovery, 
until some one can come and substantiate by proper evidence 
that these matters were known before my time, in which 
event I will cheerfully subside. I also claim that the injury 
to the animal when the horn is knocked off, is not so much 
to the wounded horn itself, as it is a congestion of the brain 
at the suture, by reason of springing or tending to separate 
the two halves of the head by a blow on the horn, the effect 
of the concussion; and I claim to have also discovered that 
the circulation of the blood in the horn is secondary, that 
it is consequently much less than in the other parts of the 
body, and I also discovered that by reason of this fact all 
cattle will freeze at the horns first. I also claim to have 
settled the vexed and much mooted question of " Hollow 
Horn," proving beyond a doubt that veterinary books are 
right in claiming that there is no such disease as " Hollow 
Horn," and that the old farmer himself was also right in bor- 
ing through the horn at this place, because by so doing he 
gave vent to an ulcerated condition of the horn membrane 
or periosteum. 



92 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

Now a word or two to those numerous persons who 
report their success in dehorning cattle. I am sorry that 
any hardware "shelf men" can be found, who will impose 
upon their customers a saw which they claim to be " like, or 
as good as, Mr. Haaff's saw for dehorning cattle." I de- 
nounce all such men unqualifiedly as outrageous frauds in 
making such statements. You have said yourself editori- 
ally substantially this: "A man is foolish who for the simple 
sum of one dollar will refuse to use a tool that is known to 
be right and take his chances on something that is ques- 
tionable." That is enough to say and I will not occupy 
more space with the argument. The gentleman who reports 
his herd as dehorned and appearing for some days droopy, 
etc., was imposed upon in an outrageous manner, and it is 
these kind of mountebank operators who bring dehorning 
cattle into disrepute." It is my purpose in issuing " Haaff's 
Every Man His Own Dehorner," to do just what I say, 
namely: to make every man, every farmer, every one who 
desires to be, a practical first-class dehorner. I will give 
others' plans and cuts a full description, and my own plan 
alongside each other, and leave the readers of my book to 
judge for themselves. My mode places the animal in a 
position where it will not struggle; it secures the neck and 
head in a straight horizontal frame, without bending or 
twisting, so that the operator stands squarely in front of the 
animal — which position is, I claim, the best position for operat- 
ing; and I believe that every farm should have just such 
a chute or frame for performing any operation almost on 
any farm animal, and it differs from any other chute in this 
respect, that no animal can cast itself in it, and it will be 
found that there is less machinery about its use than about 
any other method. I wanted to say a word about those 
fellows on the plains who sign themselves Jack Rabbit, 
Lone Star, Kil Gubbins or some sort of outlandish names, 
and who, I suppose, sport the generic title of cow-boy. Gen- 



SOME LETTERS. 93 

tlemen, I have instructed a great many cow-boys in dehorn- 
ing cattle. By the very method of your operation, I can 
plainly see that you are going to have a lot of stub horns 
on your hands, and the owners of your cattle will not be 
well pleased with the appearance of their unsightly stubs. 
Send $1.25 to the Live Stock Indicator, and get my new 
book, and read up ; then write the Indicator another letter, 
and acknowledge that you have learned how to dehorn 
cattle. I see no occasion for tormenting the poor brutes. 
If, after having read the book and followed its directions, 
you don't admit that you have received many times its value, 
I will refund you your money. 

Mr. James A. Davison, Practical Dehorner, of Belle Plain, 
111., writes about a year ago : " I got your little book on dehorn- 
ing. Examined it thoroughly, and sent for your tools. De- 
horned my cattle — 1 15 head. Since then have dehorned over 
a thousand head for my neighbors, and all with entire satisfac- 
tion. At first my neighbors thought I ought to be sent to the 
penitentiary ; one declared I was sinning against God ; and in 
less than six months I took the horns off all the cattle he had, 
and he now says he would not have them on at any price. An 
old man of our town was horned to death by one of those 
'quiet bulls.' That set men to thinking. They came to see 
my hornless cattle for miles around. They generally went 
home converted. Does it pay to have the horns off? I answer 
yes. It requires less than half the shed room; I save all my 
manure ; the cattle old and young fare alike ; there are no 
bosses ; it takes a good deal less feed in cold weather, as they 
huddle together close and keep warm ; I can ship more in a 
car ; and if a steer gets down it is less work to get him up 
with no horns to catch under the others; cattle can go to 
market in better condition, for they are not all scratched up. 
I save all danger to my horses, sheep, hogs and cattle, and, 
last but not least, all danger to my children. I had a child 
tossed by a cow, and no cow of mine shall ever do such a thing 
again. When properly done the skin grows over and hairs 



94 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

out, so it would be difficult to tell it was not an original and 
natural mulley. No horns for me, and it will be but a short 
time when there will not be horns on any cattle. Send me 
your new book as soon as it is out." 

Mr. C. A. Williams, of Mapleton, Minn., ordering the new 
book, says : " All that have dehorned their cattle about here 
are highly pleased with the result, but generally the work has 
been poorly done for want of proper instruction and suitable 
tools. Some have used hand saws, and some butcher saws. 
No one can do it properly without much study of the anatomy 
of cattle's heads, or some one to teach them how to do it. I 
think the cattle owners ought to be grateful to you for having 
so thoroughly studied and made plain to all the benefits of 
dehorning." 

Mr. S. E. Peters, Eldorado, Mo., says : " Some of my neigh- 
bors talk of prosecuting me for having dehorned 1 1 3 head of 
my cattle. I am only afraid they will not do it. Some of mine 
that I dehorned on Wednesday calved on Friday the same 
week ; and there is no danger in that respect, if careful." 

Mr. G. R. Arnold, a Justice of the Peace of Evergreen Park, 
Cresswell, Colo., says : " I dehorned my herd of 175 head, four- 
year-old steers and calves. The tools work just as you said 
they would. My neighbors, who said I was a fool or crazy, 
have changed their minds, and I have dehorned a hundred 
head for one of them already. I am much obliged to you. 
Please let me know all new plans." 

Mr. J. M. Welch, of Wa Keeney, Kas., says : "After getting 
your tools I dehorned over a hundred head of cattle, going 
strictly according to your directions, last spring. It has afforded 
me much comfort and profit. In my estimation too much can- 
not be said in its favor. I want your cattle tag, and any in- 
struction you may have on dehorning." 

Mr. Samuel W. Miller, Burlington, Kas., says : " I want 
your tools. Have had your little book for some time, but I 
think you should be more particular, and be plainer, and more 
of it, so that the ordinary farmer can understand better how to 



SOME LETTERS. 95 

tie up the cattle. That should be a chapter of itself. I de- 
horned a four-year-bull about the time your kind-hearted and 
over- zealous neighbors were prosecuting you for so much 
cruelty. The easy way to convert such is to give them a bull 
to take care of, and if they are not converted after leading his 
lordship to water a few times, then they have a right to their 
opinions." 

Messrs. B. & F. Tillotson, of Plymouth, Mich., say : " We 
send you last three issues of the Detroit Courier, and you 
will find articles concerning dehorning cattle marked in 
blue. We tried our dehorning tools, and found the gouge 
to work satisfactorily on calves. In a few days shall dehorn 
all our older cattle. We got acquainted with your method 
through the Western Rural. Many of the farmers are ready 
to follow your advice. Dehorning would have been a com- 
mon thing in a short time but for the above articles in the 
Detroit Courier. They have scared off some of the farmers 
who are afraid of the law. For this reason we take the liberty 
to ask you to send an article to the editor of the above paper, 
which we have no doubt will rap the writer of this article into 
silence. We know that you can give facts, results, and rea- 
sons against which writing in the other direction is entirely 
in vain." The papers did not come, nor would the Detroit 
Courier send me copies on application by letter. 

A controversy has arisen regarding the use of the word 
" dehorn," some insisting that " dishorn" is the proper word. 
The New England Homestead, of February 4, has the following 
editorial, which has been sent me by Professor Henry : "A 
controversy having arisen as to whether the word * dehorn' is 
more correct than ' dishorn,' the Homestead referred the point 
to the editors of Webster's dictionary. They reply as fol- 
lows : ' Dehorn is preferable.' We shall, therefore, stick to 
dehorn." 

P. P. Holm, of Meriden, Iowa, says : " I received my tools 
on the 1 6th. On the day following I dehorned 75 head from 
11 a. m. to 5 p. m. Your saw is the tool to do it with. I have 



96 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

dehorned 200 head with good success." Mr. H. refers to the 
fact that some of his cattle bled badly, and their heads mat- 
terated, and he asks the reason. Reply : Either they were 
frozen or bruised in the operation, or, more likely than all, got 
too warm during the excitement of first beginning. Of course, 
some of them may have been diseased. 

Mr. S. M. Kelso, of Portland, Oregon, writes : " I did not 
have the courage to begin dehorning until this winter. I had 
a heifer that would hook anything that came in her way. I 
began with her, and I have dehorned everything from calves to 
five-year-old cows, and they don't lose a feed or shrink in milk." 

Mr. J. T. Campbell, of Holder, 111., says : " I had cattle 
dehorned on the 31st of January. I have lost one, and it puz- 
zles me and all my neighbors. I could not see that it caused 
my cattle to lose a pound of flesh, but on the 29th of February 
this one commenced bleeding at the left horn, and he bled to 
death. He seemed all right for a month, and then bled to 
death. He seemed to bleed at the hole in the left horn. As 
for me I think dehorning is one of the best things that has 
struck the country. I would not have horns on my cattle for 
a dollar a head ; they feed so much better, and don't seem to 
be afraid." Answer: If the truth could be known about this 
steer it would be found that he has somehow been bruised, 
either kicked by a horse or scared, or in some way affected so 
as to have bruised his head by a blow, which left the artery in 
the condition explained before, so that there was not sufficient 
contractile force to enable the inner coating of the artery to 
close. Had this animal been discovered in time, and the 
cavity in the horn and head filled with common flour, the ani- 
mal kept quiet by himself, there would have been no trouble 
in my opinion in saving him. 

Mr. James H. Cox, of Sandwich, 111., says: "Your new 
mode of securing cattle for operating is splendid. I like your 
tools first-rate, and I see how foolish it is to use a common 
meat saw as I did at first. I have dehorned 255 head in the 
last few days. Send your new book as soon as it is out." 



SOME LETTERS. 97 

Messrs. Adams Brothers, of Telluride, Colo., say : " Your 
instructions have been of great service to us. There is nothing- 
like experience. We dehorned ten head of milk cows before 
we heard from you, and they all lost considerable blood, all 
owing to our inexperience; and they lost flesh also. We 
know better now, and have no further disagreeable experi- 
ences." 

Mr. J. French, of Renwick, Iowa, says : " I have dehorned 
over a thousand head ; all doing well but one steer. He has 
been running a watery mucus from one side, and ,he is not 
thriving. Can anything be done for him, and if so, what?" 
Answer: Yes. If he has, on examination, a stub horn, take it 
off again, severe as this may seem, and cut a little into the 
matrix, as directed for dehorning yearlings. He will bleed 
some. Watch him; if the bleeding becomes serious use flour, 
and stop it. That will make a wound which will undoubtedly 
heal. 

Mr. E. H. Warner, of Marathon, Iowa, says : " I run a herd 
of a thousand head of cattle, and I want your tag. Branding 
with hot irons is not liked by the farmers." The author thinks 
it horribly cruel, and now unnecessary. 

Mr. J. R. Underwood, of Verbeck, Kas., says : "After a 
long time I got your dehorning tools. We like them much. 
Have dehorned 126 head. It takes three-quarters of the cuss- 
edness out of them. Our bull we dehorned weighs 1,800. 
He got fearfully ugly. Killed a horse worth $ 1 50 for us. Was 
a terror to all around. He is a grand shorthorn. He is as 
quiet now as a lamb, and runs with the calves and colts, and 
lets them eat at his manger, and three-quarters of the people 
here are enthusiastic over dehorning ; while the other fourth 

say I ought to be put into prison or h 1 ; they don't care 

which. Dehorning is a great comfort to us. Our cattle drink 
together, and stand in the sheds together. Before dehorning 
it was distressing to a man with any feeling to watch them. 
I have lost one cow and three calves within six months by 
horns." He is like a good brother who writes me, saying : ' 



98 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

" I don't think a man can be a good Christian and have horns 
on his cattle." And I agree with him that it is a tough job, for 
the everlasting roiling of the temper is something awful, and 
reminds me of a story, and a true one, too. 

A good Christian brother, whose besetting sin had been 
profanity, was one day tussling with a calf, and at length, over- 
come and breathless, he gasped out, " You d d little calf, if 

I hadn't the grace of God in my heart I'd break your d d 

little neck." That was a moment of weakness; and horns on 
the farm are apt to produce daily provocation. 

Mr. J. W. Harding, of McCallsburg, Iowa, says: "Send 
your complete outfit; and write me, does it hurt to put tar of 
iron or turpentine on the horn to stop the bleeding, or keep it 
from being sore ? Answer : Yes. Keep such irritating stuff 
away from the cattle's head. 

Battle Creek, Iowa, Ida Co., March 12, 1888. 
Mr. Haaff. 

Dear Sir: — I have dehorned 450 head of cattle this spring, and have more 
engaged. I have a stanchion that I move around where I go to dehorn. Last 
week I dehorned 165 head for one man, mostly three-year-old steers; they all did 
nicely except one, which I noticed at the time of dehorning did not bleed as much 
as the rest, and that night he died; th? man told me he went to the cattle yard 
the next morning and the steer was lying there dead, and looked by his appear- 
ance to have died without a struggle. What do you think caused his death ? I de- 
horned seven head with a carpenter's saw, and did not like it. But the little saw 
goes through the horn like a hot knife through butter. I think it is just the plan. 
Please answer and oblige, 

Thomas Crane. 

Mr. Wilson, of Keswick, Iowa, says: "Your saw gauge 
works well. I had some failures, but I think I was to blame 
for not cutting deep enough." 

Tampico, III., March 13, 1888. 
H. H. Haaff, Chicago, III. 

Dear Sir : — I have thought of writing to you for some months, but thought 
best to wait until I was fully convinced of the result of " Dehorning," and I am 
now well pleased with the result of my experiment. I dehorned all my cattle last 
October, and had the pleasure of wintering the herd this winter. I am now fully 
convinced that dehorning is a positive mercy and a blessing to the brute creation, and 



SOME LETTERS. 99 

may success crown all your departures in life, as it has in dehorning. I was the 
first one to dehorn any cattle in Fairfield, and, of course, began on my own, and 
as a matter of course created quite a little comment, some s aying I ought to be 
prosecuted, etc. However, dehorning is having quite a boom just now, and 
anybody in this town that knows enough to saw off a broom-stick, thinks he can 
dehorn cattle all right, or rather a great many, I should say. However, I have 
convinced quite a few that there is a scientific way of " dehorning," which any 
one with ordinary j udgment, and with your tools and directions, with a little prac- 
tice, can learn so as to dehorn cattle with accuracy. Nothing would induce me 
to keep cattle with horns hereafter. I have dehorned several of my neighbors' 
cattle, and they are all highly pleased with it. There are some siding saw de- 
horners trying to run down my way of dehorning with your saw, but I am glad to 
say they have made a sad failure, for, in order to compete, they were obliged to 
send for your saw and directions. There has been quite a number come to me 
for information, and I have a herd to dehorn in two days from date. I have not 
met with any ill-luck so far. I have dehorned cows and heifers in all stages of 
pregnancy, and bulls that have horns measuring over four inches in diameter. I 
dehorned twenty head for L. C. Russell, and he says he would not have the 
horns on if anyone would give him$ioo. I dehorned all of J. Woodward's, 
and he says if he had one thousand head he would not winter one horn ; 
and this seems to be the verdict of all who have their cattle dehorned. I have 
saved 25 per cent, of the feed by it this winter, to say nothing of the shed room 
and convenience. Yours, etc., 

F. C. Berry. 

COMMENTS. 

I wonder if the steer was injured by not being properly 
secured, by being bruised with that carpenter's saw, by a slip 
and a blow, when leaving the stanchion, by some other animal 
after the operation. I can only guess at it because I have not 
the facts, but this lesson I do learn : My chute would have pre- 
vented any such accident, and the price of that steer would 
have paid for a dozen chutes. I also see the necessity of care 
at all times. Dehorning cattle should not be like a " husking 
bee," or a " raising," or a " town meeting," a jolly gala day, but 
it should be a day of quiet, and careful labor, and painstaking 
all around. 

Blue Island, III., March 13, 1888. 
H. H. Haaff, Esq. 

Dear Sir : — I will take pleasure in reporting to you the success I am having 
in dehorning cattle. The first job I did was thirteen head for one of my near 
neighbors. When finished he said, " There, I would not have those horns put 



IOO THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

back on again for the best hundred dollars that I ever saw." He also said that 
one of them had gored two cows within the last six months so they had died 
from the effects, and had spoiled another. He said, "No more horns for me." 
"His name is N. B. Rexford, Jr., P. O. Blue Island, 111. 

The next was fifty-one Jerseys on the Elm Hollow Farm, owned by E. H. 
Rexford, also of Blue Island, with good satisfaction. 

Next forty-two head for O. E. Atwood, also of Blue Island. Pie said that his 
herd were worth two hundred dollars more to him than before dehorning. 

E. P. M. Wilson, of Worth, had a fine Durham bull that had gored two 
horses. He gave me three dollars for dehorning him, and would have given five 
times that amount if I had asked it. 

If you have a few strong arguments that you can sum up to convince unbe- 
lievers, and answers to their foolish questions — of course, you have had them all 
asked — I would be very thankful to receive them by mail. 

I find it hard to convince the Germans that it is right or profitable to dehorn. 
I talk the German language as well as the English, so I can explain the benefits 
so far as I have got them from your book. 

Hoping that you will not tire of this I remain 

Respectfully yours, 

Ethan II. Wattles. 

Remarks : My dear fellow, you are the " best strong argu- 
ment " one could have. Keep right at it, and facts will 
bring the Germans and Yankees, too. 

Brown ville, Iowa, March 9, 1888. 
Mr. Haaff. 

Dear Sir : — There have probably been one thousand head of stock dehorned 
in this county within a year, after your method, and all speak favorably of the 
practice. I had twenty-three head dehorned three days ago, nine cows giv- 
ing milk, and I can't see the least shrinkage in their milk. Quoting your own 
words, it looks as though "the horns must go." And we are indebted to you as 
the originator of a practice that is destined to be of great value to all who fol- 
low it. Very truly yours, 

A. F. Foote. 

Thanks, thanks, to you and to all — " the horns must go." 

Geneva Junction, III., March 12, 1888. 
Professor H. H. Haaff. 

Dear Sir : — I would like to ask a few questions in regard to dehorning. 1 
commenced dehorning my calves or yearlings; after finishing seven head, 1 
hesitated, thinking possibly I was not doing it right; some of them seemed to 
have holes nearly as large as a man's finger, and on others there was none per- 
ceptible. I commenced sawing right where the skin joins on the horn, or where 
the little crease is next the head. Was I right in so doing? All the information 



SOME LETTERS. IOI 

I ever had was what I got from your speech at the Agriculture Society in Wis- 
consin. 

Now, what I wanted to ask you was, Have I got time to dehorn some thirty 
head more and have them heal so, that there will be no danger of flies? that is 
what is worrying me if those holes do not close up. 

I think it is one of the great discoveries of the age if we can make a success 
of it. I have been crippled by those horns, and hundreds are constantly losing 
their lives. 

Please answer at once and oblige, C. J. Kull. 

My dear sir, we will surely succeed and not fail. There 
is no such word as "fail " or " can't" in the dehorning vocabu- 
lary. Cut those heads a quarter of an inch into the hair and 
hide (that is the matrix), and as to flies don't you be afraid. 
Keep off the turpentine and carbolic acid and use axle grease 
and cotton, and don't fear about those holes. Let them alone 
and nature will cure them. 

Ridott, III., March 15, 1888. 
H. H. Haaff. 

Dear Sir: — The dehorning tools that my father (Ellis Askey) ordered of you 
came all right. One week ago to-day we dehorned twenty-two of our cattle, 
and will finish the rest m a few days. As to the success it was much better than 
we expected. The cattle are all doing well, and we are very much pleased with 
it. I dehorned a bull so vicious that a stranger could not go into the yard where he 
was. Now anybody can go around him, and he takes no notice of them. It 
seems as if the devilishness goes with their horns. There are only a few cattle 
dehorned in our County of Stephenson. I am the first dehorner in our township. 
Some of the people that hooted at me when I talked of dehorning have changed 
their minds since they have seen our cattle dehorned, and are talking of having 
their own stock dehorned. A little time will fetch them to it. 

There are some of my neighbors that would like me to do some work for them 
that have not good stanchions to hold them. I would like to ask you for some 
information to make a chute that can be moved from place to place. 

Respectfully yours, F. M. Askey. 

My chute will fill the bill. (See cut.) I commend to our 
Fat-stock Show people the letter of " Subscriber," below. 

Bunker Hill, March 19, 1888. 
H. H. Haaff, Esq. 

Dear Sir : — Possibly you will recollect that I did buy your book and dehorn- 
ing tools from you, and I can say that I have made good use of them and am well 
pleased with dehorning, and would not winter or feed another steer with horns, 



102 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

as I know it is at least worth three dollars, more to winter a steer with horns than 
without. Dehorning is gaining ground, and several of my neighbors following 
my example, and some have sent after your book and tools. I did loan my tools 
to a neighbor, and he did break my»saw before he got one horn off, — a thing I 
did expect. 

Hoping to hear from you soon, I remain most respectfully yours, 

J. H. Bauer. 

Greenville, Ala., March 20, 1888. 
Dr. H. H. Haaff, P. O. Box 193, Chicago, 111. 

Dear Sir : — Following your advice — you remember we had some correspond- 
ence about two months ago — I dehorned my Jersey bull, Leon Gambetta. I my- 
self admit that it was with great misgivings, and but for his fierce and dangerous 
character, I would never have undertaken the job. But now that the horns are 
off, and he is well without injury, but positive benefit, I would not have them back 
on him for one hundred dollars. 

Of course, send me "Haaff's Practical Dehorner;" and on receipt of it, or 
before if you desire, I will remit you the price. It is a great pity that dehorn- 
ing is not more general. Very truly, J. C. Richardson. 

The above is respectfully submitted to Jersey " Scribes and 
Pharisees." 

Horns on the Wrong End. 

Abingdon, III., February 15, 1886. 

Editor Drovers Journal : — Among the many claims which Mr. Haaff set 
up in defence of the right to dehorn his cattle, he overlooked the most important 
points in the business, as about all mulley advocates do. But the evidence which 
he produced as to their being more contented, bunched together better, were 
wanner, required less feed, less damage from horns, advantage of shipping, feed- 
ing, shedding, etc., was all right, and not over-estimated. 

Among the claims generally overlooked by mulley advocates, is the disturb- 
ance, by horns, of nature's process in laying on flesh. 

It takes some time to start animals so as to get them in a thriving condition, and 
the process of nature should not be disturbed at any time. For instance, imagine 
a lot of cattle that have been fed up to a condition so as to take on an average ot 
three pounds per day. Then imagine the condition that the last three pounds are 
in, or the less matured part of it, or the part that connects with the next three 
pounds, and see how easily the growth can be checked, and also the various ways 
to check it, by scaring, over-feeding, irregular treatment, and numerous other 
ways that all cattle are liable to come in contact with, when all experienced feed- 
ers know that horns double the facilities for disturbance. My experience in 
feeding cattle for thirty years has been, that every time that cattle are disturbed 
whilst in the above condition, it will cause loss, and the more the disturbance the 
greater the loss. The disturbance can be so great as to make the herd poor, and 
also its owners, whilst care will prevent all liabilities, except damage from horns. 



SOME LETTERS. IO3 

Now, with all the above chances for damages, we have breeders who want to 
add two horns to each animal, and put them on in front, where they can do the 
most damage. I am satisfied that if I thought cattle were better with, horns, I 
would have them on the other end, knowing the damage would be less. The 
argument that horns among cattle are no disadvantage, and do not interfere with 
thrift, is like the argument that searing a tender bud with a hot iron will not dam- 
age its growth. 

Sawing the horns off will check the animal's growth for the time being, but 
the pay for it is continual thrift and everlasting escape from horn damage. The 
cruelty in removing the horns is about equal to two good out-door hookings, or 
one stable or fence corner gore; and I don't consider it as bad as constant dread 
or fear even among cattle. All breeders seem to be a little dull in some things. 
We have suffered ourselves to be educated to believe that the Fat-stock Show is 
the place to settle all matters in regard to the merits and demerits of our different 
kinds of cattle, when their condition at home should be considered as well. 

Did the horned cattle that were slaughtered, and dressed 70 per cent, net, 
have their usual amount of hooking during their preparation for the show, or 
were they taken up and guarded, and fitted as a mulley would be out with his herd ? 
Did the mulley Angus that cut 71.4 per cent, net, get their proportion of hooking 
during the preparation for the show? My judgment is they were hooked fully 
as much as though they had been with the herd all the time, whilst the horned 
ones were watched in order to compete with them. I have a short-horn cow 
that can hook at least 5 per cent, off of any steer during preparation for a show. It 
is her business. She hooked one cow to death this winter after the points of her 
horns had been sawed off. I consider that the greatest improvement on horned- 
cattle, next to the saw and crossing with Angus, is to watch them, and not let 
them frighten or gore others with their horns. It has been demonstrated at the 
block that they will cut 70 per cent, net by so doing. And, of course, it will pay to 
watch them or keep them in separate lots, or one in each, pasture alone. No 
one ever heard of a horned steer that would cut 70 per cent, net unless it was one 
whose comrades were watched away from him, and kept from being gored by 
them. Still, sometimes, they will gore their keepers, which is the only danger 
aside from the danger of not cutting so much net as a mulley; 65 per cent, net is 
the very best one could expect from a natural horned production, fed loose in the 
field; 50 per cent, net is good in a pen, loose together; and 70 per cent, where 
they are carefully watched. And to feed one with such as my cow, one need not 
look for more than a lacerated hide in the spring. 

Now, all considered, Mr. Haaff's account of saving 20 per cent, of feed by 
the different advantages of dehorning is not unreasonable. Now add the differ- 
ence in per cent, between guarded ones, such as are to compete with mulleys, and 
ones fed in a hook-as-they-please lot, and you will find 20 per cent, difference in 
gain. And the more they are like my short-horn cow, the greater the difference, 
and so on until you come to the hide alone, without any per cent., as mentioned 
above. Subscriber. 



104 THE PRACTICAL DEHOKNER. 

TO THE KD1TOR OF THE FARM, STOCK AND HOME : 

Sir — Some years ago when I was in the throes of personal prosecution and in- 
dividual persecution on account of dehorning cattle, one of the farmers' papers 
of Illinois used the following language : " Like all reformers, Mr. Haaff has to 
be a martyr to the cause. Every day or so somebody starts a fresh lie on him, 
and it spreads around and is handled over and over till it is worn oat; then they 
start another one." From the unsuccessful finale of all personal attempts of this 
character which have matured and come to grief within the last ten years, I am 
called upon to combat a new proposition, which, as the younger Pitt described an 
attack upon himself, is urged upon me by a correspondent in your columns with 
" so much spirit and decency." We are told that I " am making money out of 
dehorning." This seems to be the drift of that article, and the moving cause the 
writer had in view in penning the same was to expose my motive in so doing, and 
that he may give full effect to the sting which he seeks to produce, he prepares 
your readers by telling them at the outset that he don't propose to hold a contro- 
versy with me, and he also proceeds to show what a modest and amiable gentle- 
man he is by stating that he was present at the State Convention of farmers at 
Madison, Wisconsin, in February last, and that when the question came up as to 
"indorsing Mr. Haaff 's method of dehorning cattle," he, like the brave and true 
man he is, kept his seat, and " didn't vote." Now, I leave your readers on 
this line to draw their own conclusions as to the animus of this party. I 
have mislaid his article and shall have to reply from memory, and I am delaying 
for a few days the issue of my book on dehorning to answer the objections of 
this and other critics, and to denounce as a fraud the operations of one Wicks. 
This man Wicks takes another tack. The previous correspondent to whom I 
have referred — I think the name is Phillips — objects to my method because he 
says in " about six years the progeny of dehorned cattle will 'begin to give us a 
race of caitle subject to catarrh and diarrhoea.' " I have to assure your readers 
and the public through your columns against Mr. Phillips' "catarrh and diar- 
rhoea" on the one hand, and against Mr. Wick's thievery on the other. This 
man Wicks is advertising himself, principally by circular, as I am informed, 
throughout the Northwest and West, as giving a "new method of dehorning cat- 
tle," and he sends out a circular, he says, of twenty pages for ten cents. Your 
readers and the public generally should be warned against him. All that is most 
valuable in his circular is stolen bodily outright from my copyrighted work, " Haaff 
on Dehorning," and as to his " new method" it is simply a reproduction of the 
one described by me in that book, in which I cast the animal, and run a knife 
around the base of the horn, severing the hide from the horn before using the 
saw — a method bloody and painful in the extreme to the animal, and which, 
coupled with casting and tying the limbs of the prostrate animal to a post from 
behind, is both unnecessary, cruel and injurious. 

Now, one word on the "catarrh and diarrhoea " business. Mr. P. 's proposi- 
tion reminds me that we have had three attacks on three various occasions from 
substantially the same source. This is the Milwaukee and Wisconsin Jersey and 
Guernsey ring. Their first objection to dehorning, made some years ago, was that 



SOME LETTERS. IO5 

it would destroy the value of the bull to dehorn him. This objection was virtu- 
ally disposed of, because I produced abundant proof that bulls that had been de- 
horned for years by myself and others were equally and every whit as good get- 
ters as bef - re being dehorned. Driven from this position during the last year, 
they have taken up another, namely: that the "butter potency" of the bull, as 
they choose to call it in the abundance of their wisdom, would be injured. I 
think in my new book I will abundantly explode that doctrine, and knowing that 
I will do so they have put your correspondent forward with still a third objection, 
and that is the "catarrh and diarrhoea" subterfuge. There is nothing to it. I 
have dehorned cattle on my own place, and kept them by hundreds, yes, by thou- 
sands, for eight years last past. I was speaking with my boys last evening on 
the subject, and the boys both agree with me in saying that neither among milk 
cows which were stabled, among fatters which were stabled orshedded, or among 
stock steers and young cattle, did we ever have in these years, either earlier or, 
later, a case of either catarrh or chronic diarrhoea that we can now recall. We 
know that dehorning reduced our percentage of abortion to almost nothing, so 
that out of 125 calves last year, including a good many heifers, we lost only two. 
I don't believe that any herd of horned cattle ever showed so small percentage of 
loss. My boys say that the fourth crop of calves from the imported Hereford 
bull Dauphin since he was dehorned showed last fall at the age of six months a 
very marked falling off in the tendency to produce horns, and the boys say that 
the previous year's crop of calves from Dauphin, about seventy-five of which 
were dehorned as calves, did not produce a single stub horn. The value of our 
own experience in this line may be better understood when I say that I kept a 
dairy of breeding cows that were dehorned Shorthorn cows and heifers. I kept 
them solely for breeding purposes, so that some of the cows that were bred eight 
years before are some of them on hand now, and the best calves of each year's 
crop were kept for breeders, say from eight to twelve a year. This would leave 
us, as near as we can tell, from fifty to eighty that had been dehorned for eight 
years, and about ten we think as a selection of breeders from each year's crop. I 
think, Mr. Editor, it will be concedsd that this experiment is sufficient to settle 
the diarrhoea and catarrh tendency, except as to the brains of those who are deter- 
mined to object to dehorning, per se, whether right or wrong. I shall never at- 
tempt to cuie their affliction. It is, in my judgment, a hopeless task. 

Now, I would like to ask, since I am through with this branch of the subject 
— I would like to ask this combine of editors and Vs.'s and Humane Society 
men and such men as your correspondent who allies himself to them, what ob- 
ject can you have, and what earthly good can you do by pursuing such a course 
as you do with reference to dehorning cattle ? You admit yourselves, or your 
leader does for you, to use his own words, "that it may be a good thing for beef 
cattle," but he says, " I will have none of it for Jerseys or Guernseys." I cannot 
see the bent of your purpose. Can't you take just as much pride in your Jerseys 
and Guernseys if they are deprived of their power of killing each other and de- 
stroying human life ? If you are fair men ; if you are what you claim to be, in 
its true sense, men who are humanitarian in your tendencies and aims, you ought 



106 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

to be the very first to desire the removal of these unnecessary auxiliaries — horns. 
I confess I can see but one motive. Your Humane Society expects to get to it- 
self a big name, and hence it has, to use the fair conclusion of your correspondent, 
" sent over to Great Britain to find out whether dehorning is right or not." Your 
editors and the publishers of your papers are mad because they are not being 
paid by advertising or otherwise for pushing the cause of dehorning, and your 
Vs.'s are afflicted alike with a disease of the brain and of the pocket. By opposing 
dehorning they make themselves singular in the eyes of the community, a d they 
may expect to gain in a professional way by casting odium upon the practice. It 
looks to me that you have mapped out for yourselves a very rough road to travel. 

H. H. Haaff. 

Such men cannot deny that dehorning is a success, nor 
that I gave it to the world in its present shape. Even the 
word was unknown in print until I used it. Show me the 
printed word prior to my time — when and where it was used. 
I created a necessity for the word. The Irish and Scotch, it 
is true, sawed off horns, but they did not dehorn. 

Show me where it is written how to dehorn and have no 
stub-horn follow, or where it is printed how to cut and leave 
the opening into the frontal bone with a permanent hole after 
the wound is healed up. Who, prior to my time, could say 
that a stub-horn may be so cut as to give a mulley head, and 
yet the neglect to properly re-cut (by cutting a trifle below the 
first cut) is what will (if anything ever does) bring dehorning 
into disrepute. Stub-horns and the neglect to recut may do 
it. but these men can't do it. 



EXTRACTS FROM " HAAFF ON DEHORNING 
CATTLE." 

Dr. Cutts' Letter. 

Geneseo, 111., Jan. 31, 1886. 
Hon. H. H. Haaff. 

Dear Sir — In the suit of the State Humane Society against yourself far cru- 
elty to animals in sawing off their horns, recently on trial in this city, the testi- 
mony of experts in behalf of the prosecution went to show that the operation 
was one of great cruelty, inflicting severe pain upon the animal entirely dispro- 
portionate to the benefits expected to be derived from it. If this is true, the case 
should have been prosecuted and an attempt made to put a stop to the practice. 
But the overwhelming weight of testimony on your side from farmers and others 



EXTRACTS FROM HAAFF ON DEHORNING CATTLE. IO7 

accustomed to the care of cattle, who had either seen the operation of dehorning 
or had performed it themselves, that the animals did not apparently suffer much 
pain at the time or afterward ; that they manifested no symptoms of shock, but 
partook of food and water immediately; that in milch cows the secretion of 
milk was not in the slightest degree diminished or changed, goes very far to prove 
that the operation is not so severe as has been generally supposed, and that the 
testimony on the opposite side was given more as the result of preconceived 
opinions and theories rather than from actual study and observation. 

It is quite possible that the nervous system of animals becomes less and less 
sensitive to pain in proportion as they descend to lower grades, but of that we can 
have no proof, except from the behavior of the animal itself. Assuming in this 
case that there is no difference in sensibility to pain, it becomes important to 
consider the anatomical construction of the horn, in relation to its supply of 
nerves and blood vessels. It may be stated as a rule, that while the nerves that 
are sensitive to pain are more generally distributed over the surface of the body, 
they are distributed with increased supply to parts that undergo rapid waste and 
repair, and are diminished where these processes take place more slowly. The same 
statement may be made with regard to the blood vessels which supply the mate- 
rials for nutrition. No physiologist will assert for one moment that there is any 
very considerable circulation of blood within the horn, or any active process of 
waste and repair going on there to require such a circulation. It would be to 
contradict all the results of observation and experience. On the contrary, the 
circulation is extremely small and the changes are very slow, so that we might 
inferentially from these facts alone come to the conclusion that the nervous sup- 
ply is very limited also. It does not change this conclusion if we assume that the 
function of nutrition is controlled by the sympathetic nerve, which is not a nerve 
of sensation ; that would of itself render the supply of sensitive nerves still 
less necessary or important. 

The horn of an animal is its weapon for attack or defence, subject to rude 
shocks and heavy strains and to occasional loss by violence. It would seem im- 
probable from the very nature of its functions that it should be endowed with a 
great degree of nervous sensibility, which would be a disadvantage rather than an 
advantage to it. 

No one can for a moment suppose that there is any susceptibility to pain in 
the outside shell of the horn. A blow upon it may, by jar or conduction, affect 
the more sensitive parts at its base; but it is itself as absolutely incapable. of sen- 
sation as is the hair, or the free border of the nails ; belonging as it does to the 
same epidermic structures that contain neither nerve nor blood vessels, consisting 
wholly of exuded or formed matter, that undergoes no further changes than to be 
cast off. The central part of the horn in young life consists entirely of cartilage 
which is separate and independent of the frontal bone. This becomes by age 
converted into true bone, by the same process that takes place in foetal cartilage, 
viz. : the deposition in it of mineral matters, chiefly salts of lime. Neither cartil- 
age or bone are sensitive tissues ; that is, they are not supplied with sensitive 
nerves. They may be cut, or sawed, or gouged, both in health or disease, 
with very little pain, as every surgeon knows. The pain that is felt in certain 



108 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

cases of disease comes from the pressure of exuded matter involving nervous 
filaments in their periosteal coverings, rather than from the substance of the bone 
itself, and so also of cartilage. 

There can be no part of the horn, therefore, above its base, that is sensitive 
or painful in the operation of sawing it off, except a thin circular layer between its 
outer shell and the inner bone. This layer is formed by the corium or true skin 
(its outer division forming the shell), united to the periosteal covering of the bone, 
and probably in no case exceeds one- eighth of an inch in thickness. It is the only 
part of the horn supplied witli nerves, and it is supplied from the same source 
that supplies the skin and muscles of the forehead and temples, viz. : from the 
supra-orbital branch of the ophthalmic nerve, which itself is a division of the fifth 
pair, with perhaps some terminal filaments of the facial nerve. Of course the di- 
vision of this tract must cause some pain, but there is no reason to suppose that 
it is any greater, if as great, as that caused by a section to the same extent of 
the same nerves in the skin of the forehead. The sensitive surface exposed in 
sawing off a horn three inches in diameter does not exceed one and one-eighth 
square inches (3 x 3 = 9 x }i = iy&) of a cross-cut section, that is always less pain- 
ful than where the terminal ends of nerves are left exposed or inflamed, as in 
branding wilh hot irons, to say nothing of the much greater surface involved in 
the latter operation. 

No nerves can reach the interior of the horn from the nasal cavities, for the 
reason that there is no communication between the two until after the age when 
the frontal sinus becomes developed and the apophysis, first of cartilage and then 
of bone that forms the central horn, begins to atrophy to form these cavities. 
That button of cartilage in the calf that eventually forms the horn is entirely 
separate from the frontal bone, and only becomes joined to it by age. Its imper- 
fect or arrested development gives origin to the breed of mulley cattle — cattle 
without horns. 

Now, the arrest of development in any special organ, so general as to become 
a race characteristic, is regarded among naturalists as proof that the part so 
arrested was neither highly organized, important, nor even necessary to the ani- 
mal. The inference is unavoidable that the part suppressed could never have 
been highly endowed with nerves, or it never could have been suppressed. 
Nature does not make mistakes of this kind. 

We have said that the nerves of the horn come from the same source as that 
which supplies the skin of the forehead. There is no other source from which 
they can be derived. The sensibility of the horn, therefore, cannot be greater 
than the sensibility of the forehead, but, on the other hand, it may be greatly be- 
low it, owing to the diminished supply of terminal nerves. On this point no 
proof can be offered, because, so far as I know, no actual demonstration of nerves 
within the horn has ever been made ; they are assumed to exist by analogy only. 

The skin is more freely supplied with nerves than any other part of the body, 
and it is the part most sensitive to pain, but even this varies in different situations 
and is by no means uniform. A surface denuded or inflamed is painful in pro- 
portion to its extent ; but if the same surface is at once covered up and pro- 



EXTRACTS FROM " HAAFF ON DEHORNING CATTLE." IO9 

tected from the air, the pain becomes comparatively slight. It is not so much the 
violence, the laceration, the local injury, as its exposure to the air afterwards that 
renders it painful ; and out cf our knowledge of this fact has grown up the 
modern method of treating burns, scalds and similar injuries, by covering them 
with impervious coverings. J. B. Cutts, M. D. 

This is a capital letter, especially as the doctor " changed 
his mind upon investigation," after an interview with the 
author. 

There are several questions yet in an experimental state that 
I had hoped to present here, and declare ready for the public. 
The matter of warming water for cattle is one. The matter 
of tags for cattle is another. Both of these questions will find 
a place soon in the agricultural papers, and will be solved in a 
manner satisfactory to the farmer and to stockmen. 

In presenting a new edition of this little book to the farmers 
and stockmen of the United States, it seems the proper thing 
to give the present status of the art, the objections now urged, 
and the future outlook. 

More than two thousand farmers have dehorned their cattle 
in the northwest alone during the fall and winter of '86. The 
demand for books, for tools, and for the personal presence of 
the author, is greater this April than at any previous time since 
dehorning began. Will the practice become universal ? Well, 
time alone can determine that question. This much seems 
settled. No one who has tried it goes back on it. All seem 
to endorse it. No injury has followed. We have never heard 
of any loss by it. True, our friend, Lan Waite, of Sycamore, 
dehorned a Jersey bull and the bull died, but all admit that 
dehorning was not the cause. If men will "go it alone " when 
for thirty cents they can "read and know," we do not see who 
but themselves is to blame. Two other instances of death 
have come to our notice, but in both cases ignorance or care- 
lessness was the ' cause. Most of our readers are like our 
friend Moses, of Geneseo, 111., who says, " We dehorned our 
herd on our Nebraska ranch, and we would not have the horns 
on again for five dollars a head." 



IIO THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

We see no reason why dehorning shall not obtain all over 
the land. It is certain that dehorning : 

ist. — Will save 200 human lives yearly. 

2d. — 200,000 cattle and horses yearly. 

3d. — Great numbers of hogs and sheep. 

4th. — One-fourth the hay in winter. 

5th. — One-tenth the corn to feeders. 

6th. — One-half the shed room. 

7th. — One-half the manure. 

8th. — Nearly all loss of calves by abortion. 

9th. — All loss in shipping cattle. 

10th. — Profanity enough to sink a nation. 

All this yearly — giving an aggregate saving in dollars and 
cents of over $10,000,000 annually in Illinois alone, and $100,- 
000,000 in the United States. If anyone has a greater or a more 
modern plan of benefiting the human and the brute creation, 
we have failed to hear of it. It was well said by one, "As I 
think of it, its advantages become more and more apparent, 
until I am astonished that I did not think of it and put it into 
practice years and years ago." 

Opposition. 

But are there no opponents ? Of course there are. There 
can be no good thing without. There is the " Champion Liar " 
of Henry county, and his ilk. Nothing escapes their carping, 
dirty slang. With no brains and less decency, they make up 
in noise what they lack in sense, and remind us of old Sam 
Johnson and the young man who said, "Well, I must live, you 
know." " Well," said old Sam, " I don't see much need of it." 

Then there are the Scribes and Pharisees. They don't be- 
lieve in it — "Not though one rose from the dead" — no; of 
course not. 

Wise in our own opinion, we, 
And wiser we don't mean to be ; 
Tho' seven men can render reason, 
Their talk is heresy and treason. 



EXTRACTS FROM HAAFF ON DEHORNING CATTLE. 1 1 I 

Then there is that other class, who " have the gentlest bull 
you ever seen," and they don't believe in it, and they won't 
until a cold horn is run into them — when possibly it is too 
late. " Oh ! " said one of them, " what a captious fool I was, 
and how it all came to me as I was lifted up and sot down on 
the.fence. I'd 'a. gin all my old boots and shoes then to have 
been a minute older." At the start another had the actual 
presence of mind to "lift himself right up off that horn, which 
was run into me more than six inches, and I don't want any 
more." 

But Cattle Will Butt. 

True, cattle will butt, and their butting is bad, and much to 
be avoided ; but the absence of horns will always commend 
itself to the thinking person. " If the head must come, let it 
come minus the bayonets," said another. 

Carving Calves' Horns. 

No man can successfully dehorn calves with a penknife or 
jack-knife. Get the printed directions, and follow them; this 
knife business means more horns. Use the gouge as directed. 

Dehorning With Shears. 

One man writes that he has " improved my method. I use 
shears similar to pruning shears, and the horns come off in a 
jiff." Yes, and they will grow on again. You cannot dehorn 
cattle properly with shears. Use the saw, and follow the 
printed directions, and no stubs will result. The operation is 
so different in yearlings and two-year- old cattle than in older, 
that you must understand just what to do in each case, re- 
membering that " any time but fly time" is a safe rule as to 
time, and remembering also that shears will damage the head. 

Comments of the Press. 

The pioneer paper in all the discussion that has resulted 
during the past years is the Western Rural, and it deserves 
honorable mention for the free use of its pages. It has had 



112 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

some hard shots along with the rest of us, and has warded off 
the blows with its head. It is a capital medium of communi- 
cation for the farm and the home. May it ever thrive. It says 
of the practice : " Ninety-nine out of a hundred who dehorn 
cattle say that it is a good thing. The evidence presented has 
so impressed us in its favor that if we were feeding cattle for 
profit, in these times of low prices at least, we think we should 
take off the horns as quickly as we could get Mr. Haaff's saw." 
It says further : 

The Cruelty of Dehorning. 

We are asked by a correspondent if it is cruel to dehorn cattle? This subject 
has been thoroughly discussed. We have no evidence that it is as cruel when 
properly done as some other operations which we perform on our animals. It 
doubtless hurts some. But it needs to be done properly. According to Mr. 
HaafP s method — and his method is the only one worthy the name of method that 
we have yet heard of — there is very little suffering. It is amusing to see the 
number of people who have been dehorning cattle all their lives and whose fore- 
fathers before them dehorned, now that through Mr Haaff and The Rural and 
Stockman the subject has been brought to public notice. There are so many who 
have been at the business, and for so many years, that we almost wonder that when 
Mr. Haaff got ready to dehorn, he could find a single horned animal, even a 
Merino ram, in the whole country. There may have been, and doubtless were, 
men who sawed off horns in Great Britain, but no one prior to Mr. Haaff was able 
to give a reason or point out the place and manner of operating. But Mr. Haaft 
was the first man to do more in the way of removing horns than was done by about 
such an operation as knocking off a horn with a club would be. 

The latest claimant to a thirty-year experience in dehorning is a Nebraska 
man. He is the last man to say after the woman has killed the bear, " See what 
Betsy and I have done." If Mr. Haaff had dehorned cattle as this gentle- 
man describes the method, the Illinois Humane Society would have had him dead 
to rights when it prosecuted him for cruelty to animals. If the method described 
by this gentleman were the only method, The Rural and Stockman would de- 
nounce it, first on the ground of cruelty, and second on the score of trouble. He 
gets the animal down, ties it, saws away, drawing blood in large quantities, fre- 
quently exposing the brain, and is compelled to cover the opening to protect the 
brain, etc. Then he introduces a sentence ridiculing Mr. Haaff for " introduc- 
ing dehorning in the United States !" Mr. Haaff has not introduced such de- 
horning as that in the United States or elsewhere. The Rural and Stockman 
has never before given publicity to any such method. The truth is, that all that 
is known of scientific dehorning Mr. Haaff has taught, but we presume he will 
not have the slightest objection to the probably large increase of the number of 
dehorners to let them tell it, especially if they describe their methods. 



EXTRACTS FROM " HAAFF ON DEHORNING CATTLE. I 1 3 

Don't draw any head down. Don't do it. And above all 
things, don't put a thing into the nose to hold the animal. It 
is cruel and unnecessary. Lift up the head and secure as 
shown in cut. To which let me add this : don't bind any 
animal's legs in dehorning ; it is cruel, and will cost you 
dearly if followed up. 

I add the following cut from the Rural for the sake of giv- 
ing Mr. Heath's letter: 

Letter from Mr. Haaff. 

Editors Rural and Stockman : — I never wish to be a pioneer again. The 
man at the front gets all the kicks and no pension. Here is a gentleman who 
writes from Maize, Kas., complaining of me that I didn't answer his questions, 
and informing me " that you don't know it all," etc. I have written him a per- 
sonal letter asking to be told again, and that I will be sure to reply. I am sorry 
to offend anybody, and, I guess I do a good many times by my blunt ways; but 
it seems to me as if the dehorning question had been thoroughly discussed, and I 
do believe that every man who uses my saw and gouge, who gives them a fair trial 
and waits results, will say as Mr. Heath does, whose letter is appended hereto. I 
simply asked Mr. Heath, who by the by is a wealthy banker at Lafayette, Ind., 
to wait until he was convinced one way or the other and then write me. He 
owns over a thousand head of Hereford cattle, and they are good ones, too, and 
he is not afraid to put up bulls worth hundreds of dollars apiece and have them 
dehorned. One man's evidence like his ought to settle something anyhow. 
Here is his letter, and let me say it was written months after I saw him, and with- 
out any call by me at all, or a word more than said at parting last spring : 

Lafayette National Bank, Lafayette, Ind., September 28, 1886. 
H. H. Haaff, Esq., Atkinson, 111 — Dear Sir : I saw my dehorned cattle 
a few days since, for the first time since last May. It gives me much pleasure 
to inform you that they are doing well, and that the result of the experiment has 
proven highly satisfactory to me. As an evidence of my gratification over the 
result, I shall in a few days dehorn all my present year's calves and many of my 
more mature cattle. I have not considered it judicious to communicate these 
facts to you until every doubt upon the subject had passed from my mind. Con- 
gratulations are extended to you by reason of my thorough conversion to your 
theory and practice of dehorning. Respectfully yours, 

John W. Heath. 

I do hope your readers will not allow their prejudices to stand against pocket 
books. Allow me to close by adding again, dehorn your cattle, young and old. 
You will save one-fourth your hay ; one-half your shed room ; one-half your 
manure ; all loss in shipping ; all loss of calves by abortion ; all loss of life to 
cattle, horses, sheep and hogs; all loss of human life; and, what is best of all, 
your own temper. 



114 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

And I place after il this communication to an agricultural paper : 

Dehorning Cattle. 

Moorhead, Minn., February 10, 1887. 
I have had experience in dehorning cattle for several years, and for those 
about to try it, would say I use tree-pruning shears, with which I can clip off a 
horn up to one and one-fourth inches thick in a moment. For stock six months 
old and under, I let one man hold the animal's head steady with a common rope 
halter, another man holds the animal close to a fence or a board partition. For 
larger animals we have a ring in the floor to draw the rope of the halter through, 
and a strong stanchion to fasten more securely. When horns are more than one 
and one-fourth inches long the saw must be used, and certainly all stockmen will 
agree with me that it is highly humane to dehorn the brutes, for after the act is 
performed, docility reigns supreme. No master of the trough among a lot of 
" sore heads." Yours truly, 

F. J. SCHREIBER. 

Wise Mr. Schreiber, where have you had your talent buried these " several 
years?" 



I add the following letters from the W. R., because they are 
not only good, but come from men — plain, every-day farmers 
— who do not write often for the papers : 

For Dehorning. 

Editors Rural and Stockman : — I am a farmer and don't often send in 
anything for publication, but when I see a man like W T . J. S. talking of some- 
thing that he knows so little about, and without any experience in dehorning tell- 
ing how men have tortured cattle by chopping off horns, I must say a word. Mr. 
Ignorant claims he has had cattle fifty years and never had any horned to death 
or give bloody milk, and that he kept bulls and never had one that was danger- 
ous on his farm. He says he has a short-horn bull and is no more afraid of him 
than of a lamb. Now, this may be all so, but is this the case with hundreds of 
other men that are handling bulls and cattle ? Not long ago I purchased a short- 
horn bull calf for $200. After three years he began to use his weapons, and was 
not to be trusted at all. Finally I traded him for another bull, but the man that 
I traded with was very unfortunate, for the bull got loose in the stable and killed 
a fine mare on the spot, worth $150 cash. Now, was that bull's weapon worth 
that? No, nor himself either. The bull I got in exchange for mine was more 
vicious and ugly than my former one. I would like to ask Mr. Ignorance if 
these bulls were lamb-like ? Another ugly bull we had in the pasture would bel- 
low and paw the ground when people were going along the road. Is that lamb- 
like? A few days ago a cow hooked another into the barbed fence, breaking off 
the wire and posts. Another ran after a colt, trying its best, to catch it. Two 
years ago we turned some horses into the cattle yard for exercise. In a short 
time one fine animal, a mare, lay dead in consequence of cattle's weapons. She 
was worth $150 at least. How is that for lamb-like stock ? 

Why should this man condemn Mr. Haaff when so much good has resulted 



EXTRACTS FROM " HAAFF ON DEHORNING CATTLE." 1 1 5 

from dehorning ? I consider Mr. H. has saved the country thousands of dollars 
every year, to say nothing of the human lives saved. To test the dehorning, we 
began over a year ago to saw off some of our vicious cows' horns, with very fine 
results. Then, afterwards, we made fast in the stanchions several head and de- 
horned them in a few minutes. I consider the torture to amount to nothing, not 
so much as to castrate an animal, for when let loose mine soon went to eating. Nor 
did the cows shrink in their milk. But how it quieted them down ! Their ugly dis- 
position had gone. No more killing horses or running after colts, no more goring 
calves ; no more tearing down fences; no such hooking and pushing at the water 
trough as formerly. Now they do appear lamb-like. I am not in the least fear 
of going before them, or close to their heads. In regard to those dehorned a 
year ago, the horn at the place of sawing off is healed over solid, so that no bad 
effects can ar.ise from it. Let me again repeat that Mr. Haaff has been a great 
blessing to his country in introducing dehorning. As for me, I don't want any 
more horns on my place. It makes no difference how lamb-like they appear. 
Mr. W. J. S. says God gave man dominion over the beasts of the field. That is 
it exactly. But could he have dominion over their weapons ? Their weapons 
were made only for their wild state, but it belongs to man to improve on these 
weapons. Suppose because it hurts a little we should not castrate, but let our 
stock of all kinds go just as they were created, what would we have then ? This, 
dehorning is a great improvement in subduing them, as it also improves their 
looks. Dehorning is not going to stop. L. R. Hillman. 

Cruelty to Stock. 

Editors Rural and Stockman: — During the past year or more, while 
perusing the columns of The Western Rural, I have become much interested in 
the subject of dehorning, as advocated by H. H. Haaff, and it is but natural that 
when one's attention is called to this subject for the first time that the vision or 
remembrance should come before his mind of some cow or steer which he may 
have seen whose shell horn has been slipped, leaving the sensitive tissue which 
covers the bone horn exposed and bleeding profusely. With one class the sub- 
ject, without investigation, is thus dropped and the verdict pronounced. Oh! 
cruelty. Now, while we would not approve of every advanced theory without 
investigation, it is not in accordance with the true enlightened idea of an Ameri- 
can citizen to dimiss a subject without first giving it careful thought and try to 
arrive at an intelligent decision. Practical dehorning was new in this section of 
Iowa until adopted by the writer, under the instruction of Mr. Haaff. Yet the 
subject was familiar to the minds of an intelligent class of farmers, especially the 
readers of The Rural and Stockman. I find also that those who in the past 
have been most careful to provide for the welfare and comfort of their stock are 
the ones who most readily approve of dehorning. This is not strange, for when 
one has provided at great expense sheds for their protection, it is not pleasant to 
learn the fact that you have merely provided shelter for a few £ trong old bosses, 
while the weak and timid ones stand out in the storm and look in the same with 
the feed racks and water trough. 



Il6 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

As an example of those who raise the cry of cruelty, I am reminded of a man 
of my acquaintance whose cattle had been known for a number of years by hav- 
ing their ears and tails frozen off from exposure. I notice several writers on the 
subject of dehorning advise their readers to "procure a good sharp saw and blaze 
away." Now, I think, such instruction is rather too brief. I would say, learn all 
you can conveniently from those who have given the subject thought and have 
also had some practical experience. Then provide suitable ropes and tools, also 
stanchions properly constructed, so that the work may be done in a quiet yet ex- 
peditious manner. This is especially important when dehorning milk cows or those 
heavy with calf, and if the rules advocated by the originator, Mr. Haaff, are prac- 
ticed, the work may be done without even a shrinkage in milk, or any ill effects 
resulting. The writer has now taken the horns from two hundred and fifty head, 
about one-third of which were milk cows, and these la ter have expressed them- 
selves so plainly through the milk pail that I am now convinced that the pain 
inflicted is not worth considering in comparison to the advantages resulting either 
from a humane or financial standpoint. I am in favor of breeding and gouging 
the horns from the calves, and sawing from the old cattle, and with The Rural 
and Stockman I am in favor of dehorning the devil by educating the youth, and 
removing the horns from the intemperate by suppressing the liquor traffic, thus 
saving more than one-half the misery caused to man and beast as a result of 
horns. B. F. R. 

Dunlap, Iowa. 

The following clippings from the Farmers' Review. Another 
stanch friend of dehorning presents points of interest to all: 

Mr. H. H. Haaff attended the Wisconsin farmers' convention held at the state 
capital last week on invitation of Professor Henry and others connected with the 
state board. A hearing was arranged for him on Tuesday p. M. in the assembly 
hall, the legislature adjourning for that purpose. The hall was packed to its full 
capacity. Of course his theme was dehorning, which he illustrated by specimens of 
skulls minus horns and horns minus skulls. Professor Henry's published experience 
in dehorning had prepared the way for a favorable reception of the plan, and 
judging from the reports of the meeting in the Madison papers Mr. Haaff seems 
to have carried everything before him, fully four hours having been taken up by his 
speech and subsequent reply to questions before the meeting was willing to dis- 
perse. There can be no question but dehorning has come to stay, and at no dis- 
tant day will be generally practiced, but upon young calves instead of grown 
animals, the wearers of horns having meanwhile all disappeared. 

The Review further adds: 

We think it folly to claim that the operation of dehorning cattle does not 
cause suffering. The real question to be considered is, "Are the advantages re- 
sulting from dehorning such as justify the infliction of whatever degree of suffer- 
ing attends the operation?" There are other operations, the propriety of which 
no one questions, which also cause suffering to animals, such as castrating males, 



EXTRACTS FROM " HAAFF ON DEHORNING CATTLE." 11/ 

spaying females, branding, cutting off the tails of lambs, making ear marks, etc. 
These operations, under most conditions, are regarded as necessary, and so justifi- 
able. In case of dehorning, if properly performed, we are satisfied the suffering 
is not as great as is claimed by many. The argument against dehorning because 
the animals were created with horns, would, if carried to its legitimate conclusion, 
prevent the castration of all male animals as an interference with nature ; and if 
adopted and put in practice would in about three years bring about a condition of 
things among our domestic live stock which N. L. H. would not find it pleasant 
to contemplate. In this, as in many other things, prevention is better than cure, 
and it is better to operate on the four-weeks-old calf, so as to prevent the growth 
of horns, than to let it grow up and then have a serious tussle with it to take the 
horns off. The comparison instituted by our correspondent between the suffering 
caused by taking off the horns of an animal and cutting off the ears of a human 
being is not a fair one. The horn is not supplied with sensitive nerves as is the 
ear. The only sensitive part is the thin membrane enveloping the inner bony 
core, not thicker than a sheet of paper. Neither the outside horn shell nor inside 
bony structure are supplied with nerves, and besides the nervous system of the 
bovine is not as delicate and sensitive as that of the human family. 

It may be said right here that the operation of dehorning 
is more severe on the calf than at any other age. The printed 
directions sent with each gouge should be carefully followed, 
or stubs will appear. 

The Live-Stock Indicator, of Kansas City, comes out square- 
toed and flat-footed, and says " horns must go." Hear it : 

Horns Should Go. 

The Live-Stock Indicator is thoroughly convinced that horns on cattle are a 
cruel and costly nuisance, which the breeders of the future have no valid, sufficient 
excuse for tolerating or perpetuating. 

Again it says: 

Henceforth farmers and stockmen will be seeking information about < ehorning 
calves — in what manner and at what age it is best done ; and the agricultural col- 
leges and state veterinarians should be utilized as mediums for disseminating 
correct knowledge on the subject. The colleges raise more or less cattle and 
afford opportunities for giving their students ocular demonstrations of the work, 
while the state veterinarians should, at farmers' institutes and similar meetings, 
give not only brief lectures on the subject, but perform in public the operation on 
calves that would be brought there for that purpose. 

And again: 

The Horns Going. 

When the Live-Stock Indicator announced in a recent issue its convictions 
that the "coming steer" would be hornless — and correspondingly harmless, 



I IS THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

might have been added — it had no information that any of its western friends out- 
side of the breeders of polled cattle had been putting the idea in practice among 
their calves. 

But now comes Mr. P. R., of Kansas College, who is known as one of the 
most staunch short-horn men in the west, and announces that he began dehorning 
his calves last April, and has now about seventy head of mulley high-grade short- 
horns. 

Mr. K. was in the city last week, and gave as his reasons for the practice that 
while in his experience with horned cattle, though no serious accidents had ever 
been caused by them, it invariably happened that the younger and weaker animals 
had to be separated from the herd in order to obtain their rightful food. 

And this from the United States Dairyman : 
Dehorned, Happy Cattle. 

Mr. S. West, of Boone county, Indiana, writes us that he has made a grand 
improvement of his Duke and Bates breeds of cattle, by taking off their horns. 
He says their wicked dispositions went with their horns. Besides becoming more 
gentle, he finds he can put them in the barn like sheep, and a much greater num- 
ber will eat from the same trough, and they have no fear of one another. They 
do not seem to suffer any ill effects from the dehorning, as they produce the same 
amount of milk and butter as before. 

And this is from a Pharisee : 

The lull of the winter season has brought the annual dehorning question on 
the scene again. This year it is full of scientific plans and methods that sound 
pretty difficult and somewhat dangerous. I cannot at all understand why whole- 
sale dehorning is necessary or advisable. It is to my eyes very disfiguring, and I 
have not found horns any disadvantage in a rather long career of handling both 
beef and thoroughbred cattle. Sometimes a cow is bossy and her spirit has to be 
curbed. But is it requisite to visit her sins upon the whole race ? Now, I have found 
that simply to saw off the tips of the horns of a bossy animal suffices to curb its 
spirit. Among short-horns we find such a large proportion of incurving horns 
that their owners can never be at all dangerous to anything, and this character of 
horn is always a great ornament. To sacrifice it in calf- hood, before it has shown 
how it will grow, appears to me to be a piece of unnecessary vandalism, on feed- 
ing cattle almost as much as breeding stock. 

Capital growler, ain't he ? 

And now comes another. This time a regular old rip- 
snifter. This man is a knowist, the editor of the so-called 
" Short- Horn Journal',' of Kentucky. Listen, while he speaks: 
" The Dishorning Craze." 

Some of our constituents have requested that we attack this dishorning fool- 
ishness that interested persons are trying to make a craze to help hornless breeds, 



EXTRACTS FROM " HAAFF ON DEHORNING CATTLE." I 19 

and cause the unwary to buy them on that plea. The whole thing is too insignifi- 
cant for us to dignify with an attack. One to read the articles would think that 
the beautiful horns that so much adorn the wearers were formidable weapons of 
destruction, more to be feared than the catapults of the ancients or cannon of mod- 
ern times. That the poor, offenseless bull with horns is to be likened to the arch 
enemy of mankind who goes about seeking whom he may devour. From the 
amount of talk about the lack of horns we should judge that this deficiency was 
their greatest if not their only recommendation to the American people. Why 
don't they talk about their milking qualities, that would recommend them to the 
farmer and agriculturist ? Simply because they are woefully deficient in that im- 
portant part of the beef animal. Why don't they bring forward the beef qualities 
of their favorities ? Because they know they cannot compete with the short-horn 
in that. Now as a last resort they make a great "bugaboo " of the horn question, 
and spin long yarns about the danger of horned cattle to draw the attention of be- 
ginners to them. They remind us of the fox that accidentally lost his tail and 
went around among his acquaintances trying to persuade them that the loss was 
an advantage; that it added to his personal beauty, and that he was better off 
without a tail than with one, and urging that the other foxes cut off their tails to 
be in the fashion. The other foxes saw through the thin artifice and told him they 
were satisfied with their tails and would keep them. 

The short-hom men are perfectly satisfied with the horns with which their 
cattle are adorned. They know, too, that there is not so much danger in the thrust 
of the horn as in the butt of the head. All who have had experience know that 
a blow on the abdomen of a cow is more apt to make her lose her calf than a 
punch. The horns scratch off the hair, possibly. 

Verily ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you. 
The " dishorning craze." Dishorning is good. It is per- 
fectly safe to assume that any man who spells it with an 
"S" also spells his I with a "hi" and "'ails from hould 
Hingland." Anyone disposed to treat the language fairly 
will at once admit that there is no need of two consonants in 
the word, and that to behead and to dehorn are alike eupho- 
nious and grammatical in construction. 

At the outset of this question it never occurred to the 
short-horn men that dehorning might become an essential to 
their business; but it is, nevertheless. A race of short-horns 
that are without horns are the only cattle that can hold the 
fight as against the black cattle. In the opinion of the 
writer the farmers will have mulley cattle somehow, and the 
idiot who penned the above drizzle may live to see the truth 



20 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 



of my proposition if Providence should spare his unprofitable 
life for ten years. 

A Novel Objection to Dehorning. 

Mr. John Boyd, the Jersey breeder, in a communication 
to Hoard's Dairyman, takes issue with Professor Henry on 
the subject of dehorning, especially of dehorning Jersey bulls, 
which he objects to, not on the ground of cruelty, but 
because he believes it will destroy the usefulness of the 
animal. His theory, which he admits is as yet unsupported 
by facts, is that by depriving the animal of his means of 
offence and defence, and breaking down his courage so 
that, as admitted by Professor Henry, his dehorned six- 
year-old bull was after a short tussle mastered by a two- 
year-old yet bearing his horns, there is danger that his pre- 
potency will be destroyed, so that he will no longer impress 
his characteristics upon his offspring, and thus a dehorned 
bull of a noted butter line of descent will become no more 
valuable as a getter of butter cows than an ordinary bull of 
the same breed. Further on in the article he declares as an- 
other ground of objection to dehorning, that the " hornless 
cattle are probably the worst fighters in the world, and 
actually do more damage to one another than those furnished 
with the weapons nature gives them." This declaration is 
certainly open to question. But admitting its correctness, it 
naturally follows that the dehorned bull, instead of remaining 
a broken spirited animal, speedily becomes a better fighter 
than ever, so that instead of losing his prepotency, this qual- 
ity would be increased. 

As I have written in the Review — "There is nothing to 
the point made in the Dairyman" Old Dauphin 20th has 
given us three crops of calves since being dehorned. He is 
seven years old, and is as prepotent and as good a getter as 
before being dehorned. 

The Breeders' Gazette at Chicago is the live stock journal 



EXTRACTS FROM " HAAFF ON DEHORNING CATTLE." 121 

of the Northwest. It is king of the crowd, and it was a 
great surprise to the writer to find its Mr. Dickinson report- 
ing the Wisconsin address to the length of several columns. 
It is tony, perhaps, and feels its oats (ads), but it has been 
very fair in this discussion, riding no high horse at all. 

Here comes a screamer from the North Pole, away up in 
Dakota: . 

To-day I cut off four sets horns, and the old cows did not care much, but, oh, 
do tell me quick. I cut off a four-year-old steer's horns (half Jersey blood), and 
oh! Oh! — I guess he will die. He bleeds awful, say six hours, a fine stream, 
squirting four feet. We are now trying to step the blood, and don't know how. 
Now write me a private letter, and tell about such cases. The cows hardly bleed 
any, but think of this steer bleeding after nine hours, and still at it. Do they ever 
die ? How to stop the blood ? I certainly shall not dare to cut off any more till I 
hear from you. He bleeds on the right stub, not on the left. How much blood 
has a steer, and how long will it take a single fine stream to bleed an animal to 
death ? Do answer quick. 

Comments. 

All that ails this steer is that, first, he was hot when de- 
horned; second, the horns were not removed; stubs were 
left, which of course bleed and your fussing tends to prolong 
the bleeding. 

The printed directions which go with the tools, will, if fol- 
lowed, save such experiences. 



The Farm, Stock and Home, of Minneapolis, Minn., says 
of dehorning: 

We advise our readers to "go and do likewise." We have heard from and 
conversed with a great many who have dehorned their stock and have never heard 
word of regret, nor an intimation of any ill effects; on the contrary the expressions 
were uniformly those of satisfaction and delight. 

Minneapolis, Minn., March 18, 1887. 
H. H. Haaff, Esq. 

Dear Sir : — As a reader of. my paper you cannot be in any doubt concerning 
my opinion of the beneficial effects of dehorning. I have published many letters 
from those of my readers who have dehorned their cattle, those who were inex- 
perienced, who never saw the work done, yet their success was so complete, and 
their satisfaction over the results so entire, that they would hasten to assure. 



122 THE PRACTICAL DEHOKNER. 

New York, Iowa, 1882. 
Friend Haaff. 

I have been dehorning for some time. When I commenced, prejudice was 

largely against dehorning, but it has given way, and dehorning is very popular 

here. I have dehorned old bulls and young ones, cows of all ages, in all kinds 

of weather and in every condition. Many calls to see our herd of polled short 

horned cattle. In all our experience we never had an accident, nor have we 

seen any bad results. Would advise all to dehorn their cattle and save shed-room, 

feed and accidents. D. M. Clark. 

No better authority in Iowa on farm topics than Mr. 
Clark. 

The following letter from Professor Henry shows the 
manliness of the man. When he believes in a thing he 
knows it, and is not afraid to let his light shine. Contrast 
his course with that of Professor " day after to " Morrow 
at our hermaphrodite institution at Champaign. Over a 
year ago Professor Morrow heard all about dehorning at 
Princeton, 111. He took notes at the institute then of my 
two hours' talk. Asked questions and seemed interested; 
made no objections whatever, and yet I have to hear of the 
first utterance since from his mouth. But with Professor 
Henry how different. He has no politics in his. Fears 
nothing. Cares only for truth. Is not a political professor. 
Teaches and talks what he believes. He got right up be- 
fore seven hundred people and said out and out, " Dehorn- 
ing is right, and you don't want to let your prejudice over- 
balance your judgment." The one is a man. The other I 
deem a milk sop. The one has a big agricultural depart- 
ment, while the President of the Board of Agriculture of 
Illinois says he was down to Champaign, and the other had 
five pupils taking an agricultural course. Comment is 
unnecessary. 

Professor Henry Says : 

Dear Mr. Haaff: — I have just one point I wish to make in this matter of 
dehorning cattle. In spite of all the talk against it, based upon every conceivable 
assumption, I have yet to learn of the first person saying a word against the 
practice tuho hnexv anything about it by direct observation. On the other hand 



EXTRACTS FROM HAAFF ON DEHORNING CATTLE. 1 23 

I have yet to hear of the first person who practiced dehorning and was not 
pleased and satisfied with its workings. Let those who are so loud with protests 
bring evidence and not words, and maybe the farmers will listen more attentively 
to them ; until they do, dehorning goes on. 

W. A. Henry, 
Director Exf>l. Station, Madison. 

Here comes an unsolicited testimonial, and he, too, is not 
afraid : 

Dunlap, Iowa, March 30, 1887. 
H. H. Haaff. 

Dear Sir : — Your name will ever be remembered by the more humane class 
of stockmen as that of one who has, through great tribulation, done more to 
alleviate the suffering of domestic animals than any other man of this generation. 
Ten years will not elapse until laws will be passed prohibiting cattle with horns 
from running at large upon our highways, and more especially in our villages 
where the lives of our children are constantly endangered by those useless ap- 
pendages. Trusting that you will wear with grace the honor to which you are 
entitled, as with courage you bore persecution in the past, is the sincere wish of 
yours, etc. • B. F. Roberts. 

Another down-easter writes : " I had to keep my cattle in 
five different lots before dehorning them, but afterwards they 
were altogether, and not only did better, but it was not much 
more trouble to tend them all than one of the five lots before." 
Another is so pleased to think that, " as the animal has no 
apprehension of what is going to be done, the actual suffering 
is only momentary, and there is no dreading the operation." 

My boys laugh at the matter of cruelty, and make a lot of 
mulleys right shortly after driving strange cattle home. A 
little practice and plenty of help to draw up the head, using 
two rings, as explained in the " printed directions," is all that 
is needed. 

No thanks to the Humane Society that collects fines and 
puts them into its own pocket, and no thanks to the old fossil 
Board of Agriculture — the self-propagating board that is look- 
ing out for paps and political plunder, and what the Tribune 
calls " self-perpetuating." For all of this tribe of old barnacles 
dehorning will win, and the day is not very remote when 
horned cattle will be the exception. 



124 the practical dehorner. 

Dehorning Cattle — Full Directions. 

Turn the cut sidewise to look at it. Study the loops, and 
note before using how easily you can unlimber the animal's 
head. How easily you can haul up the rope taut. Use a 
good five-eighths manila rope, fifteen feet long, and braid 
two three-inch rings into one end. The stanchion is simply 
an old-fashioned stanchion, only it is five feet up and down in 
the clear, that is between sill and top rail. Notice in the cut 
that the head is only partly drawn up. The cut should show 
a man standing in front and raising the head, and not less 
than two men at work at the rope. Raise and draw up very 
tight. Bind the rope over the top rail and nose again and 
through the second ring to keep it in place. Now get the saw, 
take your knife and shave back the hair on top so that the 
saw blade will not clog. You will now begin to see why Mr. 
HaafT's saw is better than any other for this purpose. You 
can cut any turn and to any point with it, which is very nec- 
essary. Some knowing critter writes the Breeders' Gazette, 
and the Farm, Field and Stoehnan copies it as follows : " Cut 
three-quarters of an inch back into the hair." Well, all I have 
to say is don't do it. If you do, you will have a lot of heads that 
won't heal up the bone, that's all. For cattle three years old, cut 
into the edge of the matrix which you expsoe with your knife. 
On older cattle don't cut into the flesh any more than to 
make it sore, so that it will heal and granulate properly. On 
two-year-olds cut a quarter of an inch into the matrix, and in 
yearlings cut half an inch. A little practice and you will get 
easy and like the job, for it is a positive kindness to the ani- 
mal. The party above named has, it is safe to say, read my 
book and struck out alone, and like the man who uses prun- 
ing shears, he will have to live and learn. 

Dehorning Calves. 

This is tedious, severe, and tiresome to man and beast. It 
cannot be done rightly without using the gouge, and once 
you have tried you will see the point. It needs four good 



TOOLS TO BE USED. 125 

men to dehorn calves. Throw the calf onto its back; two men 
hold the legs, one man the head, and one operates. Now, 
ready! Well, take a sharp knife and cut one-half inch deep, clear 
around the young horn, now use the gouge and you will lift 
out a horn every time. Examine the embryo when removed 
from the gouge and see for yourself. Now try it on with a knife 
alone. Pick away a piece at a time, and lo ! when the thing 
is done and healed up there appears a Nanny horn, a nub on 
one side and a scale on the other. Reason ? You need a 
tool adapted to the purpose so as to lift the whole embryo out 
bodily; any part left lives and will grow. I may here say that 
I have had an unlimited amount of trouble to get my tools 
made to suit me. I have made enemies of the manufacturers 
because I was so particular, and enemies of some who " order 
and don't receive," but all that is over now. My tools are 
malleable iron, will stand rough work, and dehorning is no 
child's-play. When it comes to be understood all will agree 
that I have produced tools that are adapted to the business, 
and a saw that is better for the kitchen than any now made. 
I am charged with seeking to make money, etc., of course. 
That is the "fly in the ointment," and we wouldn't be in this 
world if those flings were lacking. The tools are O. K., 
and cheap, and that is enough to say. 



TOOLS TO BE USED. 

In very many cases, parties who read an account of de- 
horning cattle in some local or secular paper, jump at the 
conclusion that what others have done they themselves can 
do, and so they proceed to remove the horns from their 
cattle with either a stiff-backed saw, or a butcher's saw, and 
after a time they are apt to write the author a letter much 

like the following: 

Caldwells, Wis., Feb. 5. 
H. H. Haaff, Esq. 

Dear Sir : — Please send full set dehorning tools by express. I have not done 



126 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

much of this business ; I trimmed nine head for one of my neighbors, but some of 
them don't thrive — they seem to be running too much at the head. What is the 
matter ? Yours respectfully, 

J. M. SMITH. 

Dunlap, Iowa, Feb. 15. 
Dear Sir: — We are having considerable inquiry in regard to your dehorning 
tools ; please quote your prices. We have been selling hog saws, butcher saws, 
etc., but they don't find them satisfactory. Yours etc., 

MOORE & CO. 

Yuba City, Cal., Feb. 10. 
Dear Sir: — I have just been reading your work on dehorning cattle. I am 
very much interested in the subject, and as soon as I can get your tools I shall 
try my hand on 160 head of cows, young cattle, then calves. I have tried a 
few with a knife and a common saw, following your directions, and I see the 
need of better tools. I remain, yours truly, 

B. F. WALTON. 

I give these three letters, taken at random from the pile 
received this day from all over the country, to show how 
others feel on the subject of proper tools after having tried 
tools not adapted to the business. I can give many such 
letters — in fact, I receive them every day. As I have ex- 
plained, the saw to be used in dehorning cattle must be of 
such a character that while the hair is shoved back from the 
horn with the left hand, the operator can place the blade of 
the saw in the right hand back under the hair a little, upon 
the matrix, and so guide it as he strikes the proper point at the 
base of the horn above the ear, and then withdrawing it if 
need be and putting the saw under the horn, make a short 
cut to meet the first cut; or, if the head of the animal 
will admit it, continuing the first until the horn is cut off, and 
then using the knife part at the base of the blade to clip the 
hanging hide, and in that way prevent mutilation of the head. 
This may seem like repetition ; but as this book is bought by 
the readers for the principal purpose of learning how to de- 
horn cattle, no apology is needed on account of repetition. 
Let me reiterate what I have already said : use a proper saw to 



BLEEDING. 12/ 

dehorn older cattle, and don't attempt to dehorn a calf with- 
out using gouge and outcutter. I notice, in a recent issue 
of the Farm and Home, some one used his common saw, and 
then " daubed the hair with tar and stuck it together over the 
stub horns." This party expresses himself as very much 
pleased. In about six months from this time he will be very 
much displeased; for aside from having a lot of very sore 
heads, he will, during the year, discover himself in posses- 
sion of a lot of cattle badly disfigured by stub horns, and in 
less than a year from now he will write me for proper tools 
and this book. 

Mr. J. M. Davison, of Belle Plain, understands the matter; 
for, having discarded the ordinary meat and carpenter's saw, 
he writes : " I see the advantage of leaving no horns after 
the operation, and all I now ask is to get one job in the 
neighborhood, and the rest are soon converted to the system. 
I sometimes break a saw-blade ; send me a dollar's worth, 
so that I may be prepared." People who use meat and car- 
penter's saws, will inevitably sometimes break them, and in 
so doing they destroy a valuable tool, beside improperly per- 
forming the operation. When the young doctors from the 
veterinary college and the dealers in veterinary instruments 
find it advisable to purchase these tools, and when the mere 
nominal price at which I provide them is considered, there 
is no excuse for any man having a lot of sick or stub-horned 
cattle, made by the use of improper tools. 



BLEEDING. 



In dehorning cattle, bleeding or hemorrhage may occur 
from several causes, but is first and most generally caused 
from bruising, and too much care cannot be exercised in 
handling cattle to avoid bruising the head or, for that matter, 
any part of the animal; and this is an additional reason why 



128 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

I prefer my new mode of securing the head to my former 
way of using the stanchion, for it must be apparent to the 
most casual observer that, after the Jewel is once firmly 
placed upon the neck of the animal and the lever or 
hand-spike is inserted, there is not much danger that the ani- 
mal will bruise itself. 

Again, a second cause that promotes hemorrhage is from 
the animal being over-heated or in an excited state, and this 
can only be prevented by care. For instance, one gentleman 
wrote me that he dehorned a herd of cattle for a neighbor. 
He drove to his place, because he had the tools and equip- 
ment for performing the operation. He said the neighbor's 
cattle were driven about three miles, then dehorned and 
carefully driven back; they seemed to be all right until the 
next day, when one was discovered bleeding, and in spite of 
all they could do the animal bled to death. The operator, 
very much chagrined that he should lose an animal, wrote 
me asking the reason. The reason is apparent: the brutes 
were necessarily warmed up by driving three miles; they 
were more or less excited by being in a strange yard, amid 
new surroundings, strange faces, possibly some dogs to help 
(you know dogs have such a soothing effect on cattle); proba- 
bly the man and his help were laboring under a little excite- 
ment — excitement is incident to such an operation when not 
understood thoroughly; the animals were dehorned, turned 
loose to go home, the excitement was kept up necessarily by 
reason of their anxiety to reach home. Cattle are like chil- 
dren, they hate to be away from home over night. Very 
likely somewhere in the rush this animal got its head 
bruised ; weakened by the reaction, there was not contrac- 
tile force enough left to the inner coating of the artery to col- 
lapse sufficiently so as that the blood would coagulate and 
stop the bleeding. 

Since writing the above I have received the following 
letter : 



BLEEDING. 1 29 

Hastings, Neb., March 8, 1888. 
Mr. H. H. Haaff. 

Dear Sir: — I received jour tools on February 22, and on the 23d went to 
work to dehorn my herd of thirty-two head. I had the best of luck with all 
except my short-horn bull, General Newham, No. 80,953, which was two years 
old the 17th of last October. After taking off his horns he bled quite free out 
of his right horn, but thought it nothing strange, as some of the cows bled just 
as much at the time, or more, so I paid no attention to it until the next morn- 
ing. I found he had bled until he was getting weak ; then I took him up and 
tried to stop it by various ways, first by applying cotton and tar, and that would 
not stop it ; then I singed the artery and that did not stop it ; then I stitched it 
up and bound bran and shorts on it, and that stopped the blood, but the bull 
was too far gone, he died after living about fifty-two hours. He did not bleed 
continuously, but took spells of bleeding about every six hours, and when I 
thought I had it stopped it would start again. Now, I would like to know if 
you can give any reason why he took spells of bleeding, and your remedy to 
stop blood in case we have any more trouble. I have let my brother, George 
Way, have the tools and he has been dehorning ; has dehorned about seventy- 
five head so far with the best of results, except the above case. I would not 
have the horns back on my cattle again for three dollars per head and compel 
me to keep them on. Yours truly, 

J. S. WAY. 

The burning was bad, very bad. Dry flour at an early 
stage of the trouble would have saved the animal. Here is a 
record of one of God's noblemen. Instead of whining, as 
Guppy did, because Webster, of Marysville, Kas., happened 
to leave a few stub horns on his cattle's heads, and rushing 
into the papers to denounce Haaff, this man says " I 
wouldn't have the horns back again for $3 per head, " and 
all this with a dead imported bull. Keep your animals cool 
and quiet before and after operating. Don't excite them. 

I am not surprised that death followed in this case, because 
the patient was not found early enough to stop the bleeding 
by artificial means. The bleeding by spells was partly 
owing to exercise and partly to the natural supply of newly- 
made blood which the artery could not retain. 

There is one other reason that may be given for an unex- 
pected hemorrhage in certain cases, and that is from disease 
through a low condition of the system ; some blood dis- 
order, or more likely than any other, a frozen horn, followed 



I30 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

"by the death of the membrane and subsequent disease of 
the matrix. In this case the cutting of the part is attended 
with more or less hemorrhage, but I have never known any 
serious results to follow if the animals were quiet and cool 
when operated upon. I have myself dehorned cattle with 
heads so diseased, at the base of the matrix, that it was an 
operation not only offensive in the extreme, by reason of 
the suppuration of the parts, but necessarily attended with 
much hemorrhage ; in fact, I remember one case in which a 
large steer had had his horn broken near the base, and I 
was obliged to make two cuts to remove the part, it was so 
terribly swollen and inflamed. In this case I advise" the use 
of some dry astringent, and, if it can be obtained, I think the 
common dry puff ball of the fields an excellent application ; 
if not readily obtained use flour; make a continued applica- 
tion of dry flour, being careful to somehow confine the ani- 
mal or handle so as to prevent exciting it or otherwise. 



SORE HEADS. 

The previous chapter on bleeding necessarily includes 
much that might be said here, and which it is not necessary 
to repeat. 

It will be understood, from reading this book, that I insist 
that poor tools mast not be used in dehorning cattle ; so also 
the stanchion and tne chute must be properly built as herein 
directed. 

In the case of frozen horns, or of horns that have been 
broken and are therefore remaining as sore stubs or left hang- 
ing from the matrix, I recommend in cutting that the oper- 
ator cut a little deeper than in the case of heads not diseased. 

To dehorn one of the case just named, and leave a stub 
horn after the operation, is to simply run the risk of losing 



SORE HEADS. I3I 

the animal, and in any event of prolonging its misery ; for if 
the operator fails to remove, nature will be likely to remove 
by a process of inflammation and suppuration with atrophy 
of the parts. 

It sometimes happens that cattle which are dehorned late 
in the spring or early summer become fly-blowed, and the 
frontal sinuses or cavities in the head fill with maggots. A 
careful study of the chapter on the bones of the head will 
have taught the reader that there is no particular danger, in 
that event, to the life or health of the animal, but of course 
the maggots should be removed. I have observed that 
these maggoty cases are more likely to occur where, from 
some reason or other, there has been a considerable flow of 
blood through the opening into the frontal sinuses. Simply 
take a pine stick and poke the maggots out of the head; 
don't use tar or turpentine as an application, but take of ordi- 
nary axle grease, say half tea-cupful and mix with it half a 
dozen drops of carbolic acid diluted with ten times its bulk, 
say sixty drops, of sweet oil or unsalted butter ; mix these 
with the axle grease, saturate cotton thoroughly with the 
mixture and fill the hole with the cotton, lying very loose 
and not packed into the orifice ; daub the edge of the hole 
next the sore all around and the exposed bone with a little 
of this mixture. If any maggots happen to remain they 
will crawl out and drop to the ground — as indeed they all 
would if given a chance, for the grub must find the ground to 
fulfil its destiny. 

I am frequently asked if dehorned cattle will receive in- 
jury by being allowed to run to loose stacks of straw or 
hay after the operation has been performed, and if there is 
no danger of chaff and other foreign substances getting into 
the frontal sinuses and making trouble, and some of those 
foreign importations that we have in this country, who are 
more snobs than veterinary surgeons, inveigh against the 
practice of dehorning (which, by the way, I notice they all 



132 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

call dishorning instead of dehorning) , and declare that injury 
will surely follow the presence of foreign substances. I sim- 
ply wish to remark here that I would not hesitate to fill the 
head of an animal properly dehorned full of oat chaff, and 
I don't believe, in fact I know it would not, militate against 
the health of the animal or the process of healing, with this 
exception, that if the chaff became wet, in very cold weather, 
it would tend to reduce the temperature of the parts too 
much, and in that way delay the process of healing ; for it 
must be understood here that an animal properly dehorned 
in cold weather has had the very best possible operation 
performed when the head is left so that the hair, as near as 
may be, covers the opening loosely and the hollows in the 
head are left free to slowly emit the warm air. This is 
Nature's salve, and is the only help which the flow of serum 
needs to effect a perfect cure. 



CHOKING. 



A great danger in performing the operation of dehorning 
is, by reason of the brute's head being closely confined 
either in the stanchion or in the chute, the cross-bar or side of 
the stanchion may come in contact with the windpipe of the 
animal and prevent his breathing. The skillful operator in 
dehorning will make so quick a job of it that sufficient time 
can never elapse to seriously choke the animal before it is 
liberated. But it sometimes happens that the animal in de- 
horning gets caught o r confined, and in any event it will be 
the business of the successful operator, by occasionally pass- 
ing the fingers of his left hand over the nose of the animal, 
and know if it is breathing or not. In using the chute, 
possibility of choking is prevented by drawing back the first 
bar under the animal's neck, after the animal has been 



DEHORNING.. I 33 

secured by the Jewel and the bull-dog; liability to choking 
is largely removed by reason of the slanting form of my 
new chute, as that form of chute prevents the possibility of 
the animal casting itself. Cattle choke much easier than 
humans, and bulls that are plethoric in body much sooner 
than ordinary stock-cattle or milk cows. Watch your 
animal, and in that way prevent the possibility of choking. 
The only animal that ever dkd on my hands, or under my 
administration, was a bull that I foolishly allowed to be de- 
horned in an ordinary cattle chute, built on the ground, with 
a. stanchion to secure his head at one end. As it happened 
this animal, as was apparent from the appearance of his 
blood, was out of condition; but had there been a proper 
place in which to operate on him, I am satisfied that the 
result would not have been fatal; as it was, he was simply 
choked over the slanting side of the open stanchion because 
he had so cast himself in the chute that it was impossible to 
quickly release him. They were a company of Hollanders, 
and in speaking of it afterwards, the owner got off a good 
one on the author ; said he : "I think my bull was talked to 
death." But the author thinks they were not good judges, 
since the multiplicity of glasses of beer which they absorbed 
during my visit md (which I never take) led them to mistake 
their own verbosity for mine. 



DEHORNING. 



Why recommend it ? Why do you recommend dehorning 
without qualification as to age, or place, or condition? This 
is a question recently asked me by some who are skeptical 
as to the merits of the practice. 

The ordinary reasons for dehorning are herein coupled 
together ; but since the question is asked, I ask in reply : Why 



134 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

not dehorn ? Really, now, my reader, will you pause for a mo- 
ment and ask yourself this question : Of what possible earthly 
use are horns at any time, or under any possible circumstances 
or condition that you can think of ? Do you tell me that in the 
case of cattle attacked by wolves or mountain lions, or even 
by panthers, that horns would be of any possible use ? Do 
you say that the cow might protect her calf from such attack? 
I say no! 1 was of that opinion myself; but some months 
spent in Texas, in the Indian Territory, and at ranches on 
the plains elsewhere, satisfies me that that is a mistaken 
view of the subject. I grant you that wolves and lions 
sometimes kill a good many calves, and occasionally some 
older cattle; but I challenge you to find a ranchman who 
will say that horns on the cow will save the calf. At the 
Gohram ranch, of 145,000 acres, on the Cimaron river, I 
find, as elsewhere, that they lost as many calves by wolves, 
both coyotes and also the large gray kind, and there the cow- 
boys told me that it made no difference whether the cow 
had horns or not — that wolves hunt in couples, and that one 
will pay his respects to the mother while the other steals the 
calf; and so true is it that cattle cannot protect themselves, 
that these ranchmen scatter poisoned food, put up in various 
shapes, at times when their calves are less liable to be killed, 
in the hope of thus decimating the ranks of these marauders; 
and at the Gohram ranch, on a short ride which I took with 
some of the cow-boys, we saw the remains of several calves 
recently slaughtered by the wolves, although at that ranch 
they had a pack of staghounds, the only kind of dog known 
that can successfully attack wolves, and even the presence 
of these dogs was so unsatisfactory that the men told me 
that the intention was to rid the place of all she-cattle, stop 
raising cattle, and buy steers of other ranches. 

If horns are not an unqualified and unmitigated nuisance, 
then the men who are engaged in the business most exten- 
sively are not qualified witnesses; for at Ames, Neb., where 



DEHORNING. 1 35 

they are feeding at this writing 6,000 steers, the superin- 
tendent, Mr. Allen, told me that he could well understand 
that if they could get rid of those useless protuberances it 
would be many dollars in their pocket in driving, in hand- 
ling, in feeding, and in shipping. 

I have within a day or two received a letter from Hon. R .. 
H. Whiting, Congressman of the Peoria District, at whose 
ranches in Kansas I taught the art, and who has herds of 
thorough-bred short-horned cattle, and who believes and 
knows that horns are a source of great loss every year. 
He gives the result of an experiment tried by Mr. A. Prout, 
of Severy, Kas., who recently sent a load of dehorned cows 
to market, and obtained at the packers 20 cents per hundred 
weight above horned cows of same weight, flesh and fat ; 
the packers paid more for the dehorned than for the horned 
cows, " because they were free from bruises. " This netted 
Mr. Prout something like $2 per head for his experiment; 
and besides this, they had required less feed and far less shed 
room, and " Mr. Prout is convinced of the merits of de- 
horning." 

When to Dehorn. 

As a rule, cattle may be dehorned at any time of the year. 
I have been accustomed to say any time except fly-time, and 
when the thermometer is at zero ; but I am satisfied that cold 
weather is a benefit rather than an objection if proper care 
be taken of the animals as to food and water with a com- 
fortable shed and free access at all times. Dairy cows or 
cows that are in calf should not have the hind bar placed 
under them during the operation. Fattening cattle may be 
turned loose after the operation at will. In the case of year- 
lings the head should be shaped, so as to give it a more coni- 
cal appearance. This will be better understood by refer- 
ence to the figures [see ante\. Calves should be han- 
dled with care ; the operation is a severer one on them than 
on older cattle, but by the exercise of ordinary care both 



I36 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

the operation of dehorning and castration may be performed 
at the same time. Calves and yearlings will necessarily 
bleed more than older cattle, for the reason as explained 
that the membrane surrounding the bone horn is larger 
during the early life of the animal, owing to the rapidity of 
the growth of the horn. 

Dehorning with shears should never be resorted to; the 
operation of crushing the parts with ordinary hedge shears 
or other instrument of that kind cannot be too strongly 
deprecated. So also the operation of burning either calves 
or older cattle with a hot iron is barbarous and cruel in the 
extreme, as they destroy part of the matrix which would 
materially assist in the healing, and compel nature to rot out 
the burned substances, restoring it in part again before the 
process of healing can be completed, and also by weakening 
the arteries this practice renders . bleeding more liable to 
occur. So also " putting something on " simply irritates the 
parts and retards the process of healing. I have explained 
before, but I will repeat it: immediately after the operation 
is performed and as soon as bleeding has ceased, nature 
pores out on the parts a serum which is her salve — nature's 
own restorative — and the process of healing begins simul- 
taneously with the flow of serum. 

In the case of refractory young bulls which are to be 
kept for breeding, or heifers needed for the dairy or home 
supply of milk, I have found it beneficial to dehorn such 
animals in a stanchion and leave them confined for days — in 
fact until, by careful handling from day to day, they learn to 
omit their refractory habits and become docile and tractable. 
I throw this out as a suggestion for the wise farmer, who 
knows that personal attention to young animals is what 
makes them gentle. 



SOME COMMENTS ON THE HEAD. 

The bovine head is most singularly made up. It is prop- 
erly divided into two parts. We are speaking of course of 
that part of the head which is connected with the horn, what 
we would call that part connected with the upper jaw. The 
dividing line is down the center of the forehead, and is called 
the suture ; the two parts so divided by the suture are 
themselves composed of many bones but all united as one 
whole. An examination of the skull of the ox will show 
the observer how wonderful the construction is. The brain 
lies well protected down under and next to the parietal bone, 
while the parietal bone itself is completely covered by the 
frontal bone and its various parts and ramifications. Take 
the skull of an ox and divide it at the suture, each part 
seems to be a perfect bone, through both the frontal bone 
and the parietal wall beneath into the cavity that holds the 
brain; it will be readily perceived that in striking a blow 
upon the ox head the most vulnerable point is precisely in 
the center of the forehead, where two lines drawn from the 
eye to the base of the horn would cross each other. At 
that point in the grown animal the two bones are usually 
not much over a half inch in thickness, both of them. That 
is the point at which the hunter or butcher aims when he 
shoots the animal in the field. That is the point where 
the butcher at the slaughter-house was wont to strike the 
animal with his hammer to kill it. Now a moment's reflec- 
tion will show that a blow on the end of a horn will tend to 
separate the two parts of the head at the suture; and of 
course, as these parts simply touch each other and are held 
in place by the hide and by various ligaments provided to 
join them together, a blow on the horn would so spring 
the parts as to produce great agony to the animal. 

137 



I38 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

In this connection it may not be amiss to mention the 
fact, that in rounding up cattle on the plains or in staying 
them when stampeded, they suffer loss and great agony by 
the way in which the rounding-up is done. The cattle are 
run on a circle which closes smaller and smaller, until finally 
in the center the cattle themselves, overborne by outside 
pressure, will stand erect on their hind feet; and as they are 
by the outside rings more and more crowded against each 
other, the horns are the first points that suffer, and they 
sometimes break by scores. 

In whatever way we may view the matter, or at whatever 
point we may consider it, there seems to be no exception to 
the general rule that horns are a nuisance ; a source of 
danger and of damage to the brute itself, and an injury and 
loss to the owner and to all who have to do with cattle. It 
would seem to be unnecessary to call attention to the great 
loss which horns occasion in shipping cattle; in fact, from 
the time of the grand round-up on the plains of beeves for 
market, from the time of the drive on the ranch to the 
corral or stock yard, from the time that the cattle leave the 
home farm, in whatever way handled, the horns seem to be 
like Uncle Joshua's corns, always in the way and forever 
getting hurt. What thrilling stories some men can tell of 
their experience in getting into close cars to relieve the 
downed cattte; how many of the cattle themselves die on the 
way to market or are rendered comparatively worthless by 
reason of bruises and horn thrusts received in transit; what 
suffering and untold agony the poor dumb, brutes undergo ; 
brought up on the prairie, farm or plain, accustomed to per- 
fect freedom in their movements and ways, they are now 
thrust into a crowded yard, from thence into a worse 
crowded car, and finally between themselves and their 
inhuman masters, they know nothing but misery from the 
moment they leave the field or the feed yard, until the dis- 
charged bullet tells that all is over, and life with them is 



CRUELTY TO ANIMALS. 1 39 

ended. I am sure that the inhuman brutes who prod them 
with their sticks and iron pins, who dog them on the road, who 
beat them while they are being carred, who " holler " at them 
when they use their horns too freely on their fellows, who 
hound them on their way from the cars to the slaughter- 
house, and who finally end their misery and give peace to 
their fevered bodies by the well-aimed bullet, through the 
top of the scull at the back of the horn — I am sure, if they 
paused to consider, they would at least with one voice de- 
clare, that to rid the poor brutes of their horns before leav- 
ing the farm or the ranch for the market, would be nothing 
but unqualified kindness to the animal; and it would seem as 
though the men who declaim against dehorning as cruel, 
who criticise those who practise this art as barbarous, and 
who inveigh against the practice without reason or justifica- 
tion, I am sure if they would each of them pause and think 
how much misery and suffering the animals inflict upon 
themselves, and how much unnecessary suffering their horns 
cause them in transit, they would stop their mouths and be 
dumb, or, if speaking, would admit that the practice of 
dehorning is a most humane one and ought to be adopted 
by all. 



CRUELTY TO ANIMALS. 

There are many persons who are converts to the practice 
of dehorning, and among them some editorial writers, but 
who in discussing the question of dehorning are wont to 
admit that it is cruel to dehorn cattle, that it is cruel to 
castrate, to spay or to brand; in fact, with them the rule 
seems to be, that to inflict pain is to be guilty of cruelty. 
This is a mistake, and I wish to enter my protest against 
anyone allowing that cruelty and the infliction of pain are 
synonymous terms. Cruelty is the infliction of tmnecessary 
pain, and to dehorn an animal is not to be guilty of cruelty, 



I40 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

because the pain inflicted is necessary, the pain inflicted is 
warranted by the results obtained; it is not cruel for the 
surgeon to amputate the limb when necessary to the wel- 
fare of the animal brute or human. It must be borne in 
mind that these brutes are a gift from God to man, that he 
is permitted to exercise his will upon them and for his own 
benefit, that by the Divine law as well as by human permis- 
sion man may do his will upon them, provided always that 
the end shall justify the means used. This, then, constitutes 
the true rule : does the end justify the means ? and when man 
finds that his cattle which were pugnacious and unruly, an 
injury to themselves and a loss to him, become by the simple 
act of dehorning quiet, submissive and infinitely more tract- 
able, then man has the moral as well as the legal right to 
remove the horns from his cattle, provided always a way 
shall have been found for performing the operation so that 
there shall be little and only momentary pain to the animal, 
and no loss of life or resulting damage. 

Enough has been said already on this branch of the sub- 
ject; no one who is well informed will now contend that the 
fact that horns were put there constitutes any present 
valid reason why they should be kept there ; no matter why 
" they were first put there," God placed them there — that is 
the answer, and God has b}^ his holy law in Genesis, the 
ist and 9th chapters, given man the perfect right to remove 
them. If Divine sanction or warrant is necessary, it is found 
in that chapter, wherein the Almighty Himself declares that 
he has handed these cattle over to man that man may do 
his will upon them. (See Gen. and Ps. 75.) 



SHEDS FOR CATTLE. 

In the little book " Haaff on Dehorning," I gave a chapter 

on this subject, in which I proceeded to recount some of the 

^advantages to be obtained from having sheds built on a side 



SHEDS FOR CATTLE. I4I 

hill. It is objected that on a steep side hill cattle cannot lie 
or stand with the same measure of comfort and repose to 
themselves that they do on level ground. This is a mis- 
taken notion; cattle will always seek a dry, sunny place in 
cool weather, and they will never lie down where the ground 
is wet unless compelled so to do by force of circumstances. 
If the reader is at one with the author in his desire to make 
the few years of the animals' existence here on earth as com- 
fortable as may be, then I beseech you to find a good steep 
side hill, somewhere facing to the south, if possible, and 
there erect \our cattle sheds. 

My plan of building a side hill shed is so cheap, so sim- 
ple, so readily and easily done, that there is not the slightest 
excuse for any one who leaves his cattle unprotected without 
good, warm sheds to protect them in winter from the cold and 
in spring and in summer from the storms and heat. (See the 
cut.) Winter sheds, if in a locality where lumber is not too 
expensive, can be best built by the use of common sixteen- 
foot lumber and of posts long enough to be set into the 
ground, say a foot or a foot and a half, giving a clear 
space between the ground and the roof of seven or eight 
feet, just as suits the owner. Set such posts into the ground 
on a side hill, so that when set up they will be distant from 
each other, each one eight feet from center to center. Nail 
at the back on each side common fencing boards, giving 
them the slant of the side hill, and so nailing them that the 
back edge will give a smooth surface as may be with the 
other rows of boards on the other rows of posts ; of course 
these rows of boards will run lengthwise of the hill and shed, 
so that when the roof boards are put on they can be nailed 
at top into the edges of those cross-boards. A hill-side should 
be chosen that is tolerably steep, something like an angle of, 
say 6o°. [The cut not steep enough.] If there are depres- 
sions or holes in the side hill, use longer posts, as the case may 
be, so that the line of boards nailed at the sides of the posts 



142 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

at the top will be substantially straight throughout. This 
will give a good equal appearance to the roof of the shed 
when completed, and in looking at the side-hill shed when 
completed, the roof is about all one sees. It is immaterial 
whether the roof be built first, and then the sides be added, 
or whether the sides are first erected. I believe I would 
put on the roof first. Now to build the side and end of this 
shed we have only to nail boards on each side of the posts 
along the north side, and the same way along the east and 
the west ends, and as the boards are nailed on fill in with any 
light substance that is handy. In building such a shed on 
my farm, 160 feet long and 30 feet wide, I filled in between 
the boards with dry rotten manure, because I happened to 
have it handy, and it made a wonderfully warm shed. Board 
up along the south side of the shed with a single tier of 
boards, leaving an opening every 30 to 40 feet; it makes 
little difference which, for the cattle, being dehorned, will 
not interfere with each other in the large shed I have men- 
tioned. Two large ten-foot tanks for water I had in this shed ; 
they were lined and were 2j^ feet deep; I kept them sup- 
plied by the windmill on the ground on the north side of the 
shed, and they occasioned me very little trouble in winter by 
freezing, but it is immaterial now whether the farmer has 
his tanks in the shed or outside; for if outside in the most 
exposed place, and the farmer has one of my cheap patent 
tank-heaters arranged as by me directed, he will always have 
warm water for his cattle to drink. Until I had such an 
arrangement for heating the water, a close shed like the one 
above described was the place for the water-tanks. 

I recommend my readers to build their side-hill sheds 
fifteen feet wider than I built mine ; if they will do that the 
necessity of cleaning the shed out in winter will be largely 
removed, and you will be astonished to see that the lower 
fifteen feet of that shed will during the course of the winter 
fill up with manure to the depth of three to four feet, so that 



SHEDS FOR CATTLE. 143 

you will be obliged to frequently clean the manure away 
from the entrance passage, which is best done by throwing 
it back away from the door on the inside or carting it away. 
Don't throw it outside to daub the cattle and be wasted. 
You will be equally surprised to find that your cattle will be 
always dry, and you will be glad that you took my advice 
and built your shed on a "steep side hill." 

I do think that every man who reads this chapter gets 
more than ten times the cost of this book from this chapter 
alone. Feed your stock cattle once a day during winter, all 
they will eat of hay or whatever the food may be ; give 
them free access to such a shed as I have described and to 
plenty of fresh warm water; and if your cattle enter the 
winter campaign in good order, my word for it, they will 
start the succeeding spring campaign in equally as good 
order and condition, and you will be surprised to find how 
closely those cattle, all of them, calves, underlings and all, 
will remain in that shed during the cold weather. 

It was a wise provision of nature that gave the cow brute 
a stomach so built as to be able to carry food for many hours, 
and it is not a mark of good judgment on our part if we 
don't take advantage of this fact in wintering cattle. 

I have said that there is no excuse for any one being with- 
out a cow shed in winter, and I mean it. Were I located on 
the plains of Kansas, or of Dakota, or of Nebraska, or of 
Montana, or of Texas, either I would find me a side hill, and 
I would find something for posts, and lacking boards I 
would lay poles along these posts and other poles crosswise, 
and on top of all I would have a cover of some kind of 
straw, or hay, or rubbish, or what not, and it is no particular 
matter either if it does leak some ; it will fill the purpose 
intended in any event, because it will be comparatively easy 
to fix the upper sixteen feet so that they shall shed most or 
all of the rain. For outside, in such a case, lacking boards 
I would cut sod, have a sod side and ends — if possible a better 



144 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

outside than double boards are, even though filled in between. 
I repeat it for } r our benefit, my reader: if you expect to make 
any money in handling cattle, you want such sheds as I have 
described, and you should never allow yourself or your boys 
to be so miserably shiftless or lazy as to enter the winter 
campaign without being well provided in this respect. I 
don't want to hear men talk who have so little sense as to 
suppose that " cattle can become accustomed to weathering 
the storms of winter." It is not true — they never become 
accustomed; they may have to endure it, but if they have 
to it is because you neglect your duty, and are so far shift- 
less and improvident. I have no patience with a man who 
will not protect his cattle from the storm of winter and from 
the inclemency of the weather. Not long since a farmer 
wrote me saying he had no sheds — could he dehorn his cattle ? 
and I said, " No, you ought not to do it, and you ought to be 
prosecuted for inhumanity if you do," and finally I said, 
"You ought not to be allowed to have any cattle at all;" and 
I add, in closing this chapter, that such men are a disgrace to 
the profession of farming and are guilty of gross sin against 
God and their beasts, to say nothing of the fact that they 
sin most egregiously against their own pockets and their 
own financial welfare. The contemplation of your many 
cattle running in the country during the winter foraging for 
food among the brown tops of the rustling weeds or the 
sun-dried ends of broken-down corn stalks, gives me such 
a feeling of misery and dreary want as makes me fear that 
we may some day be a nation of capitalists and serfs instead 
of a nation of intelligent and free-born American citizens. 
I urge you, gentle reader, not to permit your cattle to pass 
another winter without good ample warm sheds; and I know 
if you will take my advice, that when I next meet you, you 
will take me by the hand and say, "You are not only a 
public benefactor in teaching us how to dehorn our cattle, 
but you have done me great good in showing me how to 
keep my cattle fat during the frozen winter." 




145 



WARMING WATER FOR CATTLE. 

I wish to call the especial attention of the farmers and 
stock men to my system and patent apparatus for warming 
water for cattle or for other purpose, and for warming 
swill or slops for hogs. A tank half-full of ice or swill 
barrel half-full of frozen swill, the one surrounded by cattle 
trying to drink and the other by hogs filling the air with 
piercing screams, while the negligent owner is striving to cut 
a hole in the ice, so that he may get at the frozen fluid, are 
both of them pitiful sights. See the poor horned brutes stand- 
ing by, drinking the ice-cold liquid, opening their mouths in 
agony at the pain inflicted by the ice water, and stretching 
out their limbs behind and shaking them as in a veritable chill, 
or doubled up after being filled with the chilly stuff, giving 
the appearance of suffering from genuine ague fit! Look at 
the pigs — they have gulped down the half-frozen swill, and 
now see them go like a lot of inflated bladders, seeking their 
nests in the straw stacks or a pen somewhere, anywhere to 
get warm again! I never witness a sight of this kind that 
my heart don't go out to the poor brutes in about the same 
ratio as my indignation rises against the owner. Have you 
ever stopped to think, my neighbor, that no animal can long 
survive if the blood is lower than 98 Fahrenheit? Don't 
you understand that when you give an animal frozen food 
or drink, it detracts so much from the heat, that is, from the 
flesh of the animal, as is necessary to restore the equilibrium 
of the body and bring it all to 98 ? It is possible for you 
to take pounds of flesh from your animals every day in the 
winter ; and I tell you flat-footed that every time you let 
cattle drink frozen water and stand shivering and curled up 
in your sheds, you lose from one to five pounds of beef a 

146 



WARMING WATER FOR CATTLE. 1 47 

day per head, and this is just as sure as that I have written 
it. If beef is worth $3 a hundred, and you have a hundred 
cattle, you have simply knocked $3 to $15 out of your 
pocket every day that your cattle fill up on frozen water; 
and if you will sit down and figure the number of days 
there are in the winter campaign, and if you have 
weighed your cattle when they entered the winter cam- 
paign and you now weigh them again — spring-poor, some 
of them perhaps " on the lift," some of them looking as 
though the crows had a mortgage on them and as though 
the mortgage ought to be foreclosed — you will understand, 
and 3'ou can figure and see that I am moderate in my cal- 
culations when I tell you that every such day costs you one 
hundred or more pounds of beef. 

Now, I want to explain to you a little of the philosophy 
of my plan for heating water, so that you may understand it 
yourself. The full directions accompanying my "Tank- 
Heater" are: A simple roll of pipe, with the ends turned 
up like the letter U, run through the bottom of tank, the 
roll left underneath, as shown in the accompanying diagram; 
a cheap wooden box with the four sides remaining to give 
you the hot air chamber under the tank, a lamp containing 
a gallon of kerosene, and for 12 cents a day, and a half-hour 
of time, your cattle need not drink an ounce of cold water 
during the winter. My galvanized iron tank-heater is so 
arranged that by lighting the lamp and inserting the heater 
into the barrel of water or swill, the same may be heated to 
any degree in thirty minutes' time. This heater costs you 
one-half the price of the advertised heaters, and will give 
you the very best of satisfaction. It is so simple in construc- 
tion and so easily handled that I know every farmer will 
fall in love with it on sight, and thank me for having given 
him something besides the horrid soft coal and wood heaters 
of the men who do their farming by proxy and play "city 
chap " while posing for our benefit. 



I48 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

A serious objection to one of them is that you can't set a 
stove into the side of a tank and keep it tight for any length 
of time, while an equally serious objection to the others is 
that the cattle will surely rub, rub on those side rails until 
they rub the whole thing loose. My heater has a corkscrew 
arrangement, and can be screwed to the bottom of the tank at 
any point. It is just the difference between men doing things 
who know nothing about them by practice and a man who is a 
practical farmer and cattle man and knows what you all need. 



DOGS. 

I approach the discussion of the advisability of allowing a 
dog on the farm with some hesitation, for the reason that the 
home prejudice is stronger on this line than on that of any do- 
mestic animal on the farm, and yet I have deemed it my duty 
to attack this stronghold of prejudice and do what I can to 
create a sentiment in favor of the utter obliteration of the 
canine species., and we may as well ask the question at the 
outset, as the question is propounded regarding horns, What 
earthly good is a dog on a farm, and what are dogs good for 
anyway ? A dog on the farm costs more to feed than a hog ; 
the price of a well-fed hog on the farm is at the present writ- 
ing from $15 to $20. It is a low estimate when we allow that 
the food consumed by the worthless cur would fatten two hogs 
each year. Think of it, farmers ; the worthless, good-for-noth- 
ing, yelling, yelping, snarling and racing cur costs you every 
year $30 to $40 in the item of food alone, enough to buy a 
pair of boots each for yourself and your five boys — enough to 
buy your good wife a silk dress, better, I venture to say, than 
she has worn since she married you ; enough to buy your 
boys a good set of blacksmith tools — enough in two years to 
make them perfectly happy and you perfectly independent of 
either carpenter or blacksmith for all ordinary farm jobs ; 






149 



I50 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

enough to place on your table twenty of the best papers 
printed in these United States ; nor is this all. If the cost of 
the " purp " was alone in the item of food we might dismiss it, 
but this is the simplest item of the dog's cost ; the chasing 
of cattle, the worrying of hogs, the destruction of sheep and 
fowls, and I dont care how good a dog your " Boos " is, you 
can't deny, but you must confess, that he is a nuisance so far 
as all stock on the place is concerned. It is a thing that I 
could never understand why_a farmer wants a dog. I have 
never seen of the so-called shepherd dogs a dog that could 
well fill the place of a boy or girl in driving up the cows, and 
I have never seen where a boy was kept for that purpose an 
instance in which a dog was really needed. It is true, you may 
think he is an essential on the farm; so, too, you thought that 
horns were essential until you learned a better lesson ; but if 
you will now seriously consider the matter and impartially 
weigh the evidence so far as your dog is concerned, I am sure 
that the discussion of the matter pro and con will lead to the 
inevitable conclusion that he ought to be " dehorned just back' 
of his ears." 

I have added for the benefit of this chapter a few cuts giv- 
ing truthful illustrations of actual occurrences of every-day 
scenes of dog economy. I know what you will say in looking 
at the illustration of the dog worrying the cattle or worrying 
and biting the sheep — you will say : " My dog never does it." 
But now, good reader, you know that is not so ; your dog is 
not guilty in that line perhaps to the extent that some other 
dogs are, but your dog is a dog nevertheless, and he is sure to 
use his dog proclivities when he has an opportunity and feels 
like it ; nor do I believe there is a single farmer who can tell 
during any one day of the year what his dog is doing or where 
he is. I am not in this chapter proposing to enter into the 
discussion of the dog question so far as the loss of sheep is 
concerned, for it is simply a one-sided question, and it is to be 
answered in one way, and that is : "All dogs ought to go ! " 
How can a farmer who keeps a sheep dog expect to complain 



DOGS. 151 

justly of losses in that line from other people's dogs? the mere 
fact of his possession of the canine brute is a continuing sign 
or admission that his neighbors are justified in keeping any 
kind of dog brute they see fit; for you remember the story of the 
worthless dog on the farm ; his owner was asked what he was 
good for. Was he good to drive cattle ? No. Or hogs or 
sheep? No. Was he a good watch-dog? No. Well, was 
he good for coons ? " Well," said the farmer, " I guess he 
must be good for coons, for he is good for nothing else." So 
far as the matter of dogs for purposes of watching are con- 
cerned but little needs to be said. Any thief or number of 
thieves who propose to raid the place will be very little de- 
terred by the presence of a dog; they will see to it that the 
animal receives a dog button or a chunk of lead before they 
proceed on their thieving mission, and your dog, instead of be- 
ing a hindrance in that respect, ofttimes proves a help. It 
takes but a moment to lull him into quiet with a bit of pois- 
oned meat, and then as you fail to hear his bark you are lulled 
into a sense of security and are oblivious to sounds that 
would otherwise awake you from sleep and attract your atten- 
tion. Is it in the matter of handling cattle ? I have handled 
thousands of cattle every year for the past thirteen years, not 
only my own cattle but thousands of others of my neighbors' 
cattle brought to my pastures, and I know by actual experi- 
ence and by the admission of the very men themselves who 
were accustomed to think that they could not drive cattle 
without the use of a dog, that I could handle even their cattle 
with a boy and a horse, or by the call of the voice far more 
readily and with infinitely better results to the cattle them- 
selves, than where it was attempted to let the dog do the driv- 
ing. I have taken such cattle on many occasions, myself alone, 
and called them from one field to another, possibly for a mile, by 
the voice alone, transferring them, oftentimes by the hundred, be- 
fore my breakfast in the morning. I need not discuss or enlarge 
upon the injury to cattle by being chased by dogs. Every man 
knows that a drive of a couple of miles or so and an hour's 



152 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

worry with a dog is what no herd of cattle can get over in a 
week's time; besides, there is still another economic side to 
this matter. I have demonstrated in more than one instance 
the now-believed doctrine that the farm dog will transmit hog 
cholera, carrying it from the diseased droves at home that he 
has been accustomed to be with to the healthy drove belong- 
ing to the neighbor. I could give names and actual instances 
of farmers in my own neighborhood, more than one of whom 
have lost their hogs quite shortly after the visit of the dog 
with his master from the farm yard where the disease was in 
existence. For thirteen years of actual farming, where for 
years I had hogs by the hundred, up to as high as a thousand 
at a time, I never had a case of hog cholera among them at 
all, and I believe it was owing to the fact that I publicly ad- 
vertised in our county papers that I would prosecute any man 
who brought a dog onto my place, or who drove a load of 
hogs that had died of cholera along the road in front of my 
premises, provided disease should follow this occurrence 
among my own hogs. I would not knowingly kill a neigh- 
bor's dog unless found on my premises, but we never hesitate * 
to remorselessly shoot anything in the shape of a dog who 
invades our premises or travels that way on the road. A dog 
has no rights that any man is bound to respect ; nor am I 
alone in this view. I have Scripture authority for my posi- 
tion. My readers will recollect the passage, " for without are 
dogs and sorcerers," etc. As I stated at the outset, I shall 
seriously impinge upon some of your prejudices ; but if I set 
you thinking of this subject I am sure you will in time agree 
with this statement. The dog is a nuisance so far as cattle are 
concerned; he is a nuisance so far as the children are con- 
cerned; he is a nuisance m the house; he is a nuisance out- 
side, breeding fleas, bringing pestilence, and bearing in his 
presence nothing but what is obnoxious to any cleanly and 
well-disposed person. Of course you are attached to him, 
and you stand in substantially the same position as the per- 
sons described by Pope, who "first pity, then endure, then 



dogs. 1 5 3 

embrace." I challenge my readers upon a fair consideration 
of the matter to deny the truthfulness of that conclusion. 

I have thought that one or two instances which I have 
known of a personal character might not be amiss. The 
picture of the little girl that is given is that of an actual oc- 
currence. An innocent little girl of seven or eight years of 
age puts out her hand to pat the dog on the head as she had 
done many times before. The moment was inopportune; for 
some reason, and no one will ever know why, this worthless 
cur, petted and pampered at home, saw fit to snap at and bite 
the child. It was the merest scratch of a tooth upon the 
cheek, but almost while I write that child is passing away, in 
the arms of her grief-stricken mother, with all the horrors of 
hydrophobia. Nor is the other cut less truthful ; a friend in 
the city of Chicago, Mr. Goodwillie by name, stooped down a 
moment one day at home, after dinner, to pet a half-grown 
puppy, when the animal without any previous symptoms of 
hydrophobia (nor, indeed, will it ever be known that the dog 
had that disease, for he was killed immediately after the oc- 
currence which I am about to relate), as he was in the act of 
petting, the worthless cur seized him by the hand and hung 
there with such tenacity that Mr. G. was compelled to 
choke him off with the other hand. In less than three 
months' time Mr. G. was taken with all the symptoms of hydro- 
phobia, and he was so cognizant of the attack when the spell 
came on that he called his brothers to hold him, and warned 
his mother and sisters to keep away, saying, " I don't want to 
bite you, but I know I shall have to if you don't keep away." 
My readers can picture to themselves the agony that filled 
that family during the succeeding few hours after the spasms 
came to be certainly known as hydrophobia until death came 
to his relief. I maintain that all the dogs in this Republic are 
not worth two such lives as those just named, actual sacrifices 
to worthless curs. I could fill pages in recounting instances 
of the character and kind just named. Only two or three weeks 
since a family dog, on a farm near a village in New Jersey, an 



154 T HE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

animal considered by his master to be very valuable, suddenly 
seized his child while in the act of playing with it, biting the child 
in such a horrible manner that it will be forever disfigured, and 
then attacking the mother who attempted to save her child, 
and biting her in such a way that, whether mad or not, it is 
doubtful if she recovers, and, then, as if to fill the chapter of 
horrors, when the father, attracted by the screams of wife and 
child, put in an appearance and attempted to brain the brute, 
he was himself attacked and bitten so as to be horribly dis- 
figured. To say nothing of the terrible wounds inflicted, here 
is a father, a mother and a child who must forever suffer un- 
told mental anxiety, lest they, too, come to death by the dread 
disease hydrophobia. I hope, dear reader, after reading this 
chapter you will take immediate occasion to feed your dog 
about two grains of strychnine or put a chunk of cold lead 
through his head, and prevent the possibility of occurrences 
similar to the above in your family. It is a well attested fact 
that there is something in the organization of the dog that 
renders him liable to a mad attack in either extreme cold or 
extreme hot weather, and the trouble is you never can tell 
when the thing is going to happen. There is but one safe way 
and that is (and it ought to be the motto of every farmer) 

Kill Every Dog on Sight. 

I have tried the best I know to conjure up some excuse for 
keeping a dog. They are a nuisance to the cattle ; they are a 
nuisance to the hogs; they are a nuisance to the sheep; they 
are a miserable nuisance in the house, and they are as often a 
nuisance outside as otherwise; and I can conceive of only one 
place where a dog is needed, or where a man would be justi- 
fied in keeping one. In large cities, where there is a liability 
at night of the premises being burglarized, I can there con- 
ceive of cases in which a dog might serve a good purpose. I 
don't know that I ever read or heard of any — but I can conceive 
of such a case; but it seems to me that in this case the dog 
should be kept much as we keep a lion or a tiger, chained, or in a 



DOGS. 1 5 5 

separate apartment or yard, fenced in by himself, to be let into 
the room to be guarded only at night, and removed to his pen 
in the morning, never having a chance to reach people out- 
side. It would be interesting reading, perhaps, to go into a 
detailed statement or calculation of what dogs cost the people 
of these United States. I can make a guess. I would place 
their number at 10,000,000. Perhaps that is too high; call 
it 5,000,000. My readers can figure the economic side of the 
question to suit themselves. If each dog actually consumes 
in a year twenty dollars worth of food, the price of one good 
hog, of five sheep, or a cow, they can understand without 
much trouble how much we lose by reason of the curs — the 
worthless good-for-nothing curs — in this land of ours. Dogs, 
like the horns, are a nuisance, and " dogs ought to go," and 
the refrain ought to echo all across the continent. While 
penning these lines there comes over the wires from Alabama 
this dispatch : " A few months since a dog, supposed to be 
rabid, bit seven negroes at a public meeting they were holding 
in one of the interior villages before he could be killed. To- 
day one colored man died, and all the rest that were bitten 
have given up in despair and taken to their beds, and all 
expect to die." Poor things ! And yet there are men who 
will allow themselves and their wives and children to be con- 
tinually exposed to the possibility of such a death right at 
home. 

Say, neighbor farmer, I wish to propound a conundrum to 
you : " Can you tell me why it is that a purp can't see until 
it is nine days old ? Give it up ? It is to give you nine long, 
straight, thinking spells, and nine good chances to kill it. 
What a wise provision of nature ! How different the case of 
the calf and colt. Less hardy by nature, they will yet when 
just born get up and flee in ten minutes with the dam for life, 
but the purp can't even see its way out, much less escape. 
" Never thought of it in that light before ? " Kill it at once, and 
so spare the human race possible misery and death. 





156 




157 



CASTRATION. 

Since writing the article on Castration, the author has had 
much experience on his own herd, and the benefit of the ex- 
perience of many others who have adopted his mode of castra- 
tion, and he is more than ever satisfied that it is the way to 
castrate bulls. He has, therefore, added three cuts showing 
the position of the parts and the manner of operating. His 
plan understood on older bulls will need no further elabora- 
tion in castrating calves. Let us suppose, then, the bull is 
safely inclosed in one of HaafT's portable chutes, with a bar 
behind so that he cannot back out or kick during the operation. 
The bar should be so low down that the operator can readily 
handle the parts. 

Seize the scrotum or bag with the left hand, not grabbing 
around the testicles, but taking hold of the skin or sack 
of the testicles from behind, and turning them around to 
the right, so that the front part of the testicles are turned 
towards the operator. This refers to the position of the scro- 
tum or bag. Now take a sharp penknife or small-bladed 
knife in the right hand, and holding the thumb only upon the 
blade, say an inch back from the point, grasp it firmly, and 
drive it into each testicle way up at the top, and with one con- 
tinued slashing, driving cut bring it down to the bottom of the 
testicle. Do the same way with the other testicle. 

Now, if you release your hold and examine a moment you 
will see that the two testes have dropped out of the skin, and 
are hanging by the cord and by the connection which they 
have with the sack, and you will see on the testes that you 
have made two well-defined longitudinal cuts into the soft 
part of each testicle. Don't allow the testicles to hang down 
weighting the animal's cords, but still holding with your left 
hand, pinch out the soft part of each testicle between the 

158 



CASTRATION. 159 

thumb and ends of the fingers of the right hand. Pinch and 
squeeze only the soft part while you hold with the left on to 
the sack. When you have removed all you can by the pinch- 
ing process, by looking along down the cord you will see the 
epididimus. Taking the point of the knife make a transverse cut 
horizontally across the cord and epididymis. This will destroy 
the connection, and prevent the bull from being " proud," as it 
is called. Restore the cord and parts to the scrotum, gather- 
ing the cut together, and removing nothing more from the 
parts, unless, in case of animals abnormally large, a small part 
of the internal skin may protrude from below in which case 
trim it off with a knife. 

Now, in the case of the calf, lay him down, and while an at- 
tendant holds one hind leg well forward, and rests his weight 
on the neck and shoulders of the calf, or between the legs, so 
that he cannot move, you will cut in just the same way as in 
the case of the older bull. You will do the same pinching, 
and you will make the same little cross-cut on the epididymis 
carefully, because the parts are tender, and because if your 
knife is very sharp there is a possibility of your striking 
through and cutting your own fingers. Restore the parts of 
the calf to the inside of the scrotum or sac, and let him go. 
Of course you have done the same thing with the big bull ; 
that is all there is of it. There is a possibility that the parts of 
the scrotum may unite and heal by " first intention." In case 
there seems to be much swelling, run the bull into the chute ; 
examine him carefully, and see that there is a proper vent at 
the bottom of the wound. Now, if you made your first cut 
right, as it should have been made, there will be no healing by 
" first intention," for the bottom of the scrotum will be kept 
open by the hemorrhage and pus that naturally follow. 

Now, what are the advantages of this mode of castration ? 
First, your steer will always have a " Cod." This is a sign 
of a fat steer among the buyers, or at least, supposed to be 
one sign. Secondly, in case of a two-year-old bull, if you 
have also dehorned him, which, by the way, may be done at 



l60 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

the same time, you will have after one year a straight, perfect 
appearing steer, and no one will ever guess that he was a bull. 
I know one man — yes, I know two or three of them — who 
make it a business to buy up yearling and two-year-old bulls, 
and dehorn and castrate them after my process, and sell them 
as straight, regular steers the year following. And they are 
straight, regular steers, and there should be no discount on 
them whatever. So much for the combined operations of de- 
horning and castration. In the third place, the advantage of 
this mode of castration is that it prevents the possibility of 
internal hemorrhage. 

I suppose that not one farmer in over fifty knows how to 
properly castrate an old bull. It is astonishing what a cred- 
ulous, unsophisticated, self-deprecatory style your ordinary 
farmer will adopt. He is afraid to do anything that is out of 
the ordinary beaten track. Now bulls— old bulls, that is — 
that die from the operation of 'castration, do so by reason of 
internal hemorrhage. You can see in a moment that to take 
these testicles, after the scrotum was cut, as they hang down 
there, and draw them down as far as possible, and then sever 
them with a knife, or break them off, and so let the cord and 
muscle contract and spring back above the opening or neck of 
the scrotum, lying up there in the body of the animal and 
bleeding, the blood trickling down to the neck of the scrotum 
and coagulating at that narrow point or orifice, is simply to 
kill the animal, for if the orifice closes then there is internal 
bleeding or hemorrhage, and of course pus follows ; then 
blood poisoning and death. Now, my way is not to cut off 
the cord, and hence as the end of the cord is down in the bag 
or scrotum, and is held in position by its connection with the 
scrotum, it is simply impossible that there should be any in- 
ternal bleeding, and hence I do not see how it would be pos- 
sible to ever lose a bull by this mode of operating. I know 
this much: Myself and others have pursued it with success 
and subsequent satisfaction. The figures show the left hand 
grasping the scrotum, and in the act of turning it around. 






161 



l62 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

Another cut shows the scrotum turned fully around, and the 
knife point placed at the neck above where the cut is to begin; 
and I will say right here, cut steadily and firmly clear down 
through the entire length of the scrotum and testicle to the 
bottom thereof. The third cut shows the knife placed in posi- 
tion on the epididymis for the cross-cut of the cord and epi- 
didymis. 



CATTLE TAGS. 



It is now about fourteen years since my attention was called 
for the first time in a practical way to the matter of marking 
cattle in some way so as to distinguish them one from an- 
other. There are many different ways in common use, but, 
so far, but one effective mode has been found, and that is 
attended with so much trouble and inconvenience to the 
owner, and so much hardship, if not of cruelty, to the animal 
itself, as to be particularly obnoxious to every cattle owner 
who cares for the appearance and comfort of his brutes. I 
refer to the practice of branding. If we recollect the defini- 
tion of cruelty, "the infliction of unnecessary pain," we shall 
find in connection with the operation of branding that this 
practice is attended with more suffering than any other save 
that of castration or spaying. When it is remembered that 
the nerves are principally on the surface, and that the hide or 
skin of the animal is simply so crowded with them that it is 
impossible to place the point of a cambric needle upon the 
cuticle without touching a nerve, it will be at once seen that 
to place a red hot iron upon the animal's hide, burning the hair, 
and through the cuticle into the corium or true skin, covered 
by so large a surface as that occupied by the branding iron, 
must necessarily destroy very many of the nerves, and must 
be particularly painful by reason of partially destroying many 
others adjacent to the place where the iron touches ; but to 
attempt to brand with an iron not red hot is doubly painful, 
and produces the most excruciating agony that the animal 



CATTLE TAGS. 1 63 

can experience. I have handled many thousands of cattle on 
my ranch in Henry County, 111., yearly, for more than ten years 
last past. I have declared time and again that I never would 
brand another animal, and yet, while I have not personally 
applied the iron, I have been compelled to know that the iron 
was used, because men bringing cattle to my pastures neces- 
sarily insisted on that mode as the only way of being able to 
certainly distinguish their own cattle from others. No man 
living can drive 50 or 100 cattle to a pasture remote from his 
own, and after some months have elapsed again distinguish 
his cattle. I have seen this thing tried over and over again, 
and I have had it tried, and trusted to it to my cost, by men 
who were old cattle men, and were certain that they were an 
exception to the general rule. There is but one way to han- 
dle cattle if it is desired to distinguish them from other peo- 
ple's cattle or among themselves. The animals must be 
branded or marked in some way so as to be able to be posi- 
tively identified on any occasion. Some men mark the ear, 
slitting with a knife or sometimes chipping out a piece, or 
more frequently cutting a hole in it with a wad cutter or other 
instrument. A dozen years since I was led to believe that 
Dana's cattle tags would fill a long-felt want, but they are 
little better than nothing, as I have found in a thorough trial. 
I have used many hundreds of them myself on my own cattle, 
and I have depended upon them as a distinguishing mark in 
the case of very many other herds of cattle, and the result has 
always been uncertainty, dissatisfaction, and frequent trouble; 
so that instead of being able to distinguish the cattle by these 
tags we were compelled to resort to any other way that inge- 
nuity could devise. The trouble with all these tags is many 
fold. In the first place they are so small as to be more or 
less obscured by the hair of the ear, which renders it well nigh 
impossible to tell if the animal has a tag or not at the distance 
of five to ten rods. In the next place the ear and the head 
itself are almost perpetually on the move, and between the 
various movements of the head and ear no man living can do 



I64 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

more than guess at what these tags read. In the third place 
the cattle tear these tags out of the ear by rubbing against any 
obstruction like the head of a nail or a projecting end of wire. 
Whatever the obstruction may be, if long enough to catch on 
to either the tag or the hole made in the ear to receive the 
tag, it is almost certain to be torn out, and most frequently 
the ear is left so badly disfigured as to forever mar the beauty 
of the animal. Another kind of tag which it was supposed 
by some would obviate the difficulties met with in the use of 
Dana's tags is that which is put into the ear by shoving one 
half into the slot in the other half like a sleeve button ; but 
the trouble with these tags is that while they are not liable to 
the objection of being torn out, they are liable to, and do in 
thousands of cases, rot out, because by the compression of the 
parts of the tag the circulation of the blood in the ears is 
retarded, or else if the tag do not clasp the ear so strongly as 
to stop the circulation, it will so impede it that extreme cold 
weather will freeze the ear, and succeeding warm weather will 
cause the part to decay and the part will drop out. Besides, 
this kind of tag as well as the Dana tag are both liable to a 
fourth objection, namely, they are too small to enable one to 
distinguish the cattle at any distance. The old style of mark- 
ing cattle with hog rings, or with leather tags, or tin, or other 
metal tags sustained by hog rings or by wire rings in the ear, are 
all alike open to the objection named, they are almost certain 
to be lost by the animal scratching against any projecting sub- 
stance whatever as a sliver, or a nail, or wire. Another mode 
of marking cattle resorted to by some men is that of cutting 
the brisket or dewlap. This plan of marking cattle is chiefly 
objectionable from the fact that of itself it constitutes no mark. 
For some years my dehorned cattle were as thorougly marked 
as it was possible for cattle to be, but when after observing 
my success, my neighbors themselves began to adopt the 
practice of dehorning and use it on their own herds, it was no 
longer possible to distinguish my cattle by that way of mark- 
ing ; so, too, to cut the dewlap simply amounts to no mark at alL 



CATTLE TAGS. 1 65 

This, however, is a fact that is well established. It is a per- 
fectly safe practice to cut the dewlap or brisket; that is, I 
mean to say it is not attended with any danger to the animal, 
nor do any serious consequences follow it. I have given this 
subject of branding and marking and tagging cattle much 
thought, and after very slow and careful deliberation, I have 
come to the conclusion that I have discovered the only true 
way to mark cattle. The illustration herewith annexed shows 
my new patent mode of marking cattle. As will be seen by 
inspection of the cut my plan is a metal mark or tag attached 
to the brisket or dewlap of the animal. These tags are brass 
nickel plated. Let us now consider the objections that have 
been raised to all the other forms of marking cattle and see 
whether they apply to this. First : The suffering of the animal. 
To punch two or three quarter-inch holes through the brisket 
of the animal at the proper place, as my instructions show 
how to do, and which always accompany the tag, can do the 
animal no injury, and can produce but momentary pain; so, 
then, this method is not open to the objection that there is to 
branding or to slitting the ear. Second : Liability to be torn 
out. There is no danger in the case of my brisket tags of 
their being torn from the cattle. In the first place there are 
no openings through which a wire end, or a projecting nail, 
or a splinter of wood could be thrust, and, besides, the animal 
is not "so much accustomed to rubbing the brisket or dewlap 
at the point where I place the tag, and, further, if it does rub it 
there is no danger of his displacing it. Third : The objection 
of not being able to distinguish the animal at any distance by 
means of the tag. First, not true of my brisket tag. This 
tag is so large, being a piece of metal, pure silver in color, 
showing a surface at each side of the brisket of two inches in 
width by from three to six inches in length that from which- 
ever side you look at the animal this tag is always in plain 
view. But the best thing about this tag remains to be told. 
Unlike all other tags it has no letters or marks painted on it, 
but the letters on one side and the figures on the other are 



l66 THE FRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

never less than an inch in length, and are always made by 
stamping them out of the metal. This is so that when placed 
in position on the animal the color of the hair or hide as a 
background is what forms the letter. A moment's inspec- 
tion of the cut will show what I mean. This tag may if 
desired be put well forward into the animal's flank; and I 
believe that a simple flank tag, with the ends properly rounded, 
is the true way to mark a horse. 

The directions for the use of Haaff's Tags will explain all 
that is necessary to be known. The holes are first punched 
through the brisket or flank at the point desired, which is given 
in the directions; the animal should then be turned loose and 
allowed to run from two to four weeks, or until the wounds 
made by the punching of these holes are thoroughly healed. 
It is then but a moment's work to insert the tags, and the vex- 
ing question of how to distinguish your cattle is forever settled. 
You can mark and number every animal from one up to one 
hundred or one thousand; as many cattle as you have, you can 
keep the record of each animal in any book that you please, 
and the plainest, cheapest kind of a book is all that is neces- 
sary. Suppose that you have two hundred head of cattle — be- 
ginning with your oldest cattle you mark them down ; first 
cows, then steers, just as you please, and you come to know 
what number I or number 10 or number 47 refers to, and 
should an animal be lost, any one seeing that animal could not 
fail to distinguish it from every animal living ; should an ani- 
mal be stolen and the tag be removed you still have positive 
marks of identification, because these two or three holes which 
are cut in the brisket, and which are allowed to heal up, can 
never be successfully imitated. Any man can steal a brute with 
one of those ear-marks and easily counterfeit the hole left in 
the ear, or destroy it by tearing it out. Any man can rebrand 
an animal by first burning with a hot iron so as to obliterate the 
brand and then of course by applying his own brand ; but no 
cattle-thief can punch holes in the brisket so as to leave a 
mark which will give the same outward appearance after the 



l68 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

Haaff Brisket Tags have been removed. The wearing of so 
large a tag on this point on the animal makes of itself a mark 
that no living man can counterfeit. I need not tell my readers 
what a saving is effected by the use of a good tag. The loss 
on the hides of cattle that have been branded varies in differ- 
ent localities, but nowhere is it less than 10 per cent, and if 
the hide of your animal is worth in the market $5, you will 
save just 50 cents less the few cents cost of purchasing my 
tag. I believe that my tag will be as universally adopted in 
the near future as has been my practice of dehorning. 



'SOME REFLECTIONS AND COMMENTS. 

Paul, you know, says : " Let not him boast himself that put- 
teth on his armor, but rather let him boast that putteth it off." 
I have not intended to boast. It is true the personal pronoun 
frequently occurs in these pages, but it is every time the ex- 
perience of your friend and well-wisher who has put on the 
armor and worn it and never taken it off until assured of hav- 
ing won a thorough and complete victory over all objection 
that could be raised. In offering the public my practical 
method of dehorning cattle, I did not boldly rush to the front 
until by some years of experience I had ascertained that I 
had a sure and certain and a perfect method of removing the 
horns from cattle ; and I boldly assert that not a single case can 
be found in all the thousands and tens of thousands of cattle 
that have been dehorned during the past year, since I made 
this matter public, that is in any sense a failure, and wherever 
bad results have followed it has been due to carelessness in the 
method of operating, or in the use of tools different from my 
own. I have never complained if men saw fit to use stiff- 
backed saws or meat saws ; I have simply had to wait and they 
themselves would see in a very short time that these tools were 
not proper tools to use in dehorning cattle ; so, too, with my 
gouge ; I didn't object if men chose to use a knife upon the 



SOME REFLECTIONS AND COMMENTS. 1 69 

calf's head, or hedge trimming or other kind of shears; I sim- 
ply said that plan will not work ; I said the same thing about 
burning the calf's horns with a hot iron. I have letters from 
hundreds of those men in which they admit what I have in- 
sisted and still insist is the way to pursue, that to dehorn cattle 
and do it properly it is necessary to use proper tools made for 
the purpose. I now insist that to mark cattle and mark them 
properly it is necessary to use the proper kind of a mark and 
properly place it upon the animal in the proper way. I have 
been urged by scores of men for more than a year past to 
give this cattle tag to the public. I have refused to do it until 
now, assured of its positive and certain success in my own 
mind; so also in the matter of an apparatus for heating water. 
My readers will bear me out in saying that I have urged upon 
them the advisability of adopting a simple and cheap method 
of heating water. We have embodied that idea in my new 
tank heater, and I simply rise to ask this question : What is 
the use of a farmer paying from $18 to $25 for a water-heater 
when he can get a better one for half the money ? I give 
Haaff's Tank Heater to the public after much deliberation, be- 
lieving that no farmer will use it and not say that it is a right 
thing in the right place. It is surprising how far behind the 
age is in developing any marked improvement in agricultural 
implements as compared with developments in other lines of 
public usefulness. It is as true to day as it was a hundred 
years ago that — 

He that by the plow would thrive, 
Himself must either hold or drive. 

Two generations have passed in this country, and in that time 
the railroad has supplanted the stage coach, the mail service 
of the country has been so thoroughly changed as to bear 
little semblance and less relation to the so-called mail service 
of the country two centuries past ; the use of electricity for 
that purpose and for motive power; the electric telegraph; 
the use of the telephone ; the express service of the country ; 
the style of erecting buildings of a fire-proof character; the 



I/O THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

work in gutta percha, and in branches of art of a similar char- 
acter too numerous to mention, are all of them the products of 
the last fifty years ; but it is a fact that little or no improve- 
ment has been made in our method of turning over the soil ; 
the plow of fifty years ago was drawn by horse, and the plow 
of to-day is drawn by horse, and I am not prepared to say that 
the labor has been much lessened, and as to the advent of the 
sulky plow I question the character of the improvement. 
Sulky plows are notorious horse killers. There has been little 
or no improvement in these lines of farm work, and in our 
methods of securing hay and grain there is but little change 
for the better. I believe that the old-fashioned hay sweep 
that was used when I was a boy will gather in hay every whit 
as fast as your modern so-called hay carriers and wide sweep 
rakes. It is true we have the grain self-binder ; this, to my 
mind, is the one single and signal exception to the rule of no 
progress in the art of farming. I know I shall be laughed at, 
and shall probably be mercilessly scored for uttering these 
sentiments, but I believe them to be true. There is something 
singular in thinking over this matter, what does it mean ? how 
is it that we have never had a successful farm engine ? There 
has been absolutely little or no improvement in the matter of 
motive power on the farm, either for threshing grain or for 
pumping water, for sawing wood, for cutting feed, for making 
hay, for plowing land, in fact for any kind of farm work save 
in the single one thing of the use of the self-binder. I hope, 
and I believe, that in some matters it may be agreed on all 
hands that I have begun the march of improvement, and if so 
I shall feel that the best thirteen years of my life, devoted ex- 
clusively to the farm, were not thrown away. I believe it is 
possible to give my countrymen a grass that shall withstand 
the severest drought we have ever known, and yet yield on any 
ordinary soil two tons of delicious hay per acre. I believe it 
possible to produce such a grass that shall bear a leaf or haulm 
more than double that of timothy grass, and that shall produce 
at the same time a weight in grain that shall be heavier than 



SOME REFLECTIONS AND COMMENTS. IJ\ 

that afforded by Hungarian grass, and a grass that shall be 
perennial, flourishing equally well in sandy and in black, heavy 
clay soil It is my purpose to strive to produce such a grass, 
and teach my brother farmers that it is perfectly practicable 
for use on the farm. I believe it is possible to produce a 
farm engine that shall be adapted to all the purposes to which 
an engine can be put on the farm, that shall entirely do away 
with the windmill for pumping purposes (a machine that is 
usually at a stand-still when water is most needed on the farm). 
I believe that such an engine can be produced to cost not more 
than five cents an hour to run it, in which the danger of explo- 
sion shall be nothing, and in whose use the danger of fire shall 
be next to nothing. I believe that within the next ten years, and 
I hope in less than five, I shall be able to produce such an 
engine and offer it to my brother farmers, and be able to say 
of it as I do of dehorning, and of my tags and water heater, 
" It leaves nothing more to be desired." Until then, adieu ! 



THE END. 



APPENDIX 



This book has been delayed a straight month. There is 
no use in criminating any one : to blame the printer is useless, 
and I don't take to it myself very kindly. Perhaps the cuts 
here given may in part recompense you, dear reader, but if 
not, " go for the horns," and your temper will sweetly wear 
itself away. 

I believe the new Webster Chute is a success. If you 
choose to build it, write to him at Marysville, Kansas, and get 
his circular, for it is a patented chute — or at least a patent is 
applied for. 

At the last moment I add two cuts showing a big improve- 
ment on the use of the " Jewel," and which I shall patent for 
those who buy my book and tools. This will do away with 
the "Bull Leader and Pulleys" entirely, and I am glad of it, 
although I went to large expense with a manufacturing com- 
pany for a new cast of farm pulleys ; and you that have them 
will find them like my saw, useful in many ways besides 
in dehorning. Note in the cuts that I make the Jewel rigid, 
and put two straps of iron (or you can use strap hinges) 
all along the back side, and bolt it permanently to the 
plank. I also do away with the log chain and use a double 
piece of rope instead. This can be slipped through a hole 
in the plank or a ring, and hauled up tight to the neck 
by a handspike as we did the chain, or it can be slipped 
through a hole in a small round stick which can be used on 
the back side of the plank as a windlass. The same is true 
of the rope shown over the nose. You can pry out on it with 
a handspike, or use a small stick as a windlass — say six inches 
long — and turn it up tight to hold the nose. With the nose 



172 



APPENDIX. 1/3 

and neck held, dehorning will be made simple with any chute. 
Of course now the plank must be run out two feet instead of 
one beyond the chute and tapered down a little if found best, 
and the nose may be tightened by a wedge or wedges as well 
as a handspike or a windlass. Write me, anyone who has 
trouble, or wishes to make inquiry, for I am yours to serve. 
I add Mr. Butz' letter, received at the last moment, and I add 
in final conclusion, "The truth is mighty and will prevail. " 
Go thou, reader, and do likewise. 

I add a letter from Mr. Arnold, of Blue Hill, Nebraska ; 
it is good reading. He reports, March 28, having dehorned 
1305 head of cattle, and adds, " I don't know it all yet." And 
now let such scrub editors as he of the Montana Live-stock 
Journal growl, and tell his readers — as I am told he does — 
that any old saw will do the work just as well as another. 

Compare the idiot who never took off a horn with this plain 
Brother Arnold, who lives on his own little place, and has 
tried it, and " don't know it all yet." 

I hope Brother A. won't use a knife any more; otherwise his 
plans show good sense, but the knife business I discarded after 
more trials than I care to tell here. Use the outcutter first 
on calves, and then the gouge, and be sure to grind it on the 
back so as to keep the jaws slanted down, and not on a 
straight horizontal line. The idea with the gouge is to- lift 
and pry up and out, as well as to cut, and I wish I had made 
the gouge figure to look more that way. 

I add to the Index which is hereto attached a separate list of 
names of papers and of "some dehorners" among the thou- 
sands I have received. 

I should be derelict to my duty as a man, and wanting in 
proper respect to my friends if I did not in this volume renew- 
edly mention my deep sense of personal gratitude to the 
" Forty Farmers" who turned out in the January blizzard of 
1886 to help defend me personally, and the cause of dehorning 
cattle, against the assaults of the so-called Humane Society. 
The names of Taber and Gilbert, of Jennings, and Heaps, of 



174 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

Powell, and Arnett, and of our distinguished attorney, Dunham, 
and those others whose names would largely swell the list, 
are ever held by the author in kindest remembrance. 

H. H. HAAFF. 

Box 193, Chicago, Ills. 

Blue hill Neb march 28 1888 
Mr Haaff 

i reply to youre leter about youre book i want it i have youre gog and saw i 
got a year ago but calves is the hardest thing i can dehorn it seames to hert them 
worse i have dehorned 1305 head since last octtober and about that maney be- 
fore then well i have learnt lots about it and dont think i no it all yet when I 
dehorned the first Five head I new it all and i kill a calf by trying to dehorn it 
with my nife i let the nife slip and it run to its brain and it dide i dehorned a 
big bool and smothered him to death then i donup a nother bull and the man said 
it bled to death he got out and fit a half day with a nother bool then i went to 
dehorn for a man that had 50 head and one por yearlin bled to death i cut him 
open and there wasent blood a nuf in him to stain my hand these men gave me 
H buti went ahedbondto learnit so now i go far and near i maid me a rack 
that i can hold aney Bull or wild texses stear it is long a nuf to let there sholders 
in then they stand on a Plat form to keep it from falling over i bilt five rackes 
be fore i got the thing rite well now bout the horn i take the horn down in 
deap so as to take the making of the shell horn off and when they get well they 
are smoth muleyes i go to the senter of the crease from the horn to where the 
scull raises and the first that i don evry one has got a stub groan out i did not go 
deap a nuf to get the making of the shell horn 

I run my nife round cut clear to the scull then take my saw and take it off i 
can take the homes off very quick when they blead to much i ketch them and 
put on some puff ball and if that dont stop it i take a neadal and run threw the 
veain and ty a thred around and stop it that way i tride to sear it i dont like that 
way i find by runing my nife in a strait down forming a dish in the skin to hold 
the blud that it stopes itself much quicker than when the veain is cut squair of 
send your Bok that treeats on dehorning 

hoping to hear from you By return mail 

John Arnold Blue hill 
Webster conty Neb Box 72 

i had Mccleary to send for youre tooles for me he lived in hastings he is my 
Brotherinlaw that is the way i got youre Bok saw and gog 

I see that the printer has set up Brother Arnold's letter 
verbatim et literatim. Well, no matter! Let it go so. No 
offence is intended, and now perhaps the " Pharisees" will be- 
lieve for once that I have the original letter. 



APPENDIX. 175 

Hope, III., April 16, 1888. 
Mr. H. H. Haaff. 

Dear Sir: — I met you in Danville, 111., some time ago, and thought you 
were a crank, and sure enough you have twisted me completely over. If you are 
ever in our county again would be glad to know when, as several of our largest 
stock raisers are coming over. I am willing to have my herd sacrificed first. 
Please send circular. Yours truly, 

J. K. BUTZ. 
Good for an honest farmer. 



PLAIN DIRECTIONS FOR DEHORNING CATTLE. 

CALVES. 

Use the outcutter first. Hold the head still and turn the 
cutter until you feel that it has cut through hair and hide 
and membrane and into the bone. Keep the cutter sharp. 
Keep the calf cool and don't dehorn him until to-morrow if 
he has been running. Have the gouge sharp and well tapered 
at the cutting edges so that it will get down into and under 
the embryo horn and lift it out. Use flour if there is much 
blood. 

OLD CATTLE. 

Have your chute ready, and plenty of good help. Kill off 
the dogs, and don't drive the cattle much the same day you 
dehorn them. All these things excite them, and excitement 
is bad. Have your chute so built that you can secure your 
cow the first time she runs i?i, by a pole or a bar behind her. 
Put the best man at this post, for there is more bother about 
not shoving in the bar behind than about all the other bars. 
The steer thinks he is going right through first time. If he 
backs out he wont be so ready to come up again, and you will 
begin yelling and punching, and that is very bad. Secure 
your bull first time trying; then on with the Jewel and nose- 
rope and off with the horns, and '" let 'er go." Where the 
horn lies well down into the head, make two cuts, one on top 
first, starting on a big steer from a quarter to a half inch 



I76 THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

back into the hide (that is, into the matrix), carry the saw well 
along at same proportion of hide and hair until you pass the 
middle of the horn. Now reverse the saw and cut from the 
under side to the point you stopped at. Open chute and let 
'er go. Watch for cases of bleeding ; use puff ball or flour, 
and of course, if needed, slip a pin through the artery and 
wind a thread around, and use puff ball or flour. Keep the 
animal quiet and don't be scared. If you get a good ready 
and do your own dehorning without having a campmeeting, 
you won't have any trouble or loss. It sometimes happens 
that a frozen horn or a diseased head will bleed badly. Watch 
them, and do as I tell you above. It's very strange that no 
one ever has any trouble where I dehorn. The secret lies in 
the fact that I will have quiet and will not use a meat or a car- 
penter's sazv, which are sure to go wrong sometimes and cause 
loss. You can see what men in this volume say, and judge 
for yourself. I am of opinion that my chute, with a ten inch 
plank on the bottom, and bars in front so to slide as never to 
drop down, and a bar or bars under the belly and one behind 
(see article "Chute"), and the new arrangement of the Jewel 
and nose rope leaves nothing more to be desired about dehorn- 
ing older cattle. 

H. H. 




177 




178 



ISO THE PRACTICAL DEHORNER. 

HAAFF'S BRISKET CATTLE TAGS. 

(Patent applied for.) 

Like every new thing, you must get used to this Tag, and 
when you do learn how to use it no man can hire you to brand 
your cattle Send 10 cents for a sample Tag. You will never 
regret trying this Tag 

This Tag is brass, nickel plated. This Tag may be secured 
to the animal's brisket, either as soon as the holes are punched, 
or after the holes have healed up, (which I think is the better 
way,) same as with any other kind of a tag. 

Punch two quarter-inch holes in the brisket as high up as the 
brisket will allow, so as to correspond with the Tag when 
doubled up, (for these Tags are made of many sizes,) slip in 
the coupling tins, being careful not to crowd the Tag down 
too much onto the skin; then put inside the tins a copper 
rivet ]/ 2 to j£ inch long. Do not rivet too tight. It is well 
to use a three cornered file in the holes if they are too small, 
so that the tins will not turn. No danger of being torn out. 
No danger of freezing or rotting out. Can be seen many rods 
away. Gives both the initials of your name and the number 
of the animal. Saves you 50 cents to $1.50 loss on each hide 
by branding. No disfiguring of ear or hide. Is a positive 
ornament to the animal, and costs only ten cents each by 
wholesale in quantities; and, best of all, no cattle thief can 
ever counterfeit this mark, and if he takes it off, he inevitably 
leaves the place in such a worn condition that it is an unmis- 
takable mark forever. It is the only Cattle Tag worth the 
name. These Tags are ten cents by wholesale, and agents 
should charge fifteen cents each put onto the cattle. 

Send one dollar additional for punch and nippers, etc. After 
you have put on the washer, cut the copper rivet off, and rivet 
the end a little with small hammer. One crease with the file 
is enough to let in the tins. 



INDEX. 



SOME DEHORNERS. 



Ashley 85 

Adams 97 

Arnold 94 

Arnold — (Appendix) 1 74 

Askey loi 

Brown of Amy 7° 

Bishop 80 

Berry . 99 

Bond ■. 120 

Bauer I02 

B. F. R 116, I23 

Butz — (Appendix) 1 75 

Chandler 60 

Carter 80 

Constance 80 

Cox 83, 96 

Dr. Cutts 106 

Campbell 96 

Crane 98 

Ed. Cheever . 62 

Clark 122 

Davis 86 

Col. Davidson 87 

Davisson 93, 127 

Erb 81 

Frisbie 86 

Frye 86 

Fletcher 88 

French 97 

Foote loo 

George 60 

Goodwin 60 

Gibbs 60 

Gardner 75 

Gillus 84 

Prof. Henry 62, 4, 5, 123 

Hermance 82 

Heath 113 

Hillman 115 



Holm 95 

Hoard 68 

Kansas College 118 

Kull 101 

Kelso 96 

Luce 84 

Lindley 86 

Miller 94 

Morris 80 

Moses 109 

Moore 126 

Secretary Newton 66 

Pierce 81 

Peters 84 

Richardson 102 

Richards 38 

Roberts 123 

Subscriber 102 

Schreiber . . 114 

Sawyer 80 

Stevenson 82 

Stoops 85 

Tillottson 95 

Tebow 8^ 

Underwood 98 

Webster 34-7, 180 

Whiting 41, 89 

Wood 60 

Way 129 

Walton 86 

Weber 85 

Waite 109 

West 118 

Williams 94 

Welch 94 

Warner 97 

Wilson 98 

Wattles 100 

Young _ 84 



THE PRESS. 



Breeder's Gazette* , , 60, 120 

Dairy World 63 

Farm and Home 62 

Farm, Stock and Home 104 

Farmer's Review 60 

Farm and Fireside 62 

Hoard's Dairyman 62, 120 

Jersey Bulletin 62 

Live-Stock Indicator . .63, 85, 90, 117 



Massachusetts Ploughman .... 62, 76 

McHenry Sentinel 46 

New England Homestead 95 

Orange County Farmer 62 

Other Papers ' . . 63 

Rural New Yorker 62 

Western Rural 60, 1 1 1 

Western Resources 82 

Short Horn Journal 118 



181 



182 



INDEX. 



Agricultural Tapers 15 

"A Dollar a Horn" 84 

" A Screamer " 121 

Burning 129 

Butt Ill 

Butz 200 

Branding 14 

Bone Horn 22 

Blow on the Horn 28, 106 

Bruises 30 

Bulls 48,68, 158 

Bull Leader 49 

Bars 50 

Broken 52 

Bone Horn 10, 52, 55, 6, 7, 8, 9 

Brain 54 

Boards of Agriculture 63-4 

" Butter Potent Bulls " 68 

Butter Test 7c- 1 

Bleeding 127, 129 

Calves 17 

Chute 39, 40-6,51, 91, 200 

Cuts.. 5, 6,7,8,9,25,35,36,37, 

39, 44,45. 55, I3 2 » I5 6 , I 62 , 200 

Choking 51 

Chain 49 

Casting 50 

Circulation of Blood in Wound .10, 71 

Cud 72 

Cattle Tags 72, 91 

Directions — (Appendix) 180 

Cruelty 73, 75, 91, 11.1, 139 

Cutts, Dr 106 

Comments 137 

Castration 158 

Deer Horns 1 1 

Dehorning — How Invented. . 13, 16 

Dogs 1 1 o 

Disturbing Causes 16 

Discussion of Bone and Shell Horns 23 

Dehorning Old Cattle 24 

Using a Hot Iron 24 

Different Ages 27 

Diseased Horns 30, 32 

Death from 31 

Dairyman's Association 67, 68 

Discovery of 13, 91 

Dehorn vs. Dishorn 95 

Directions 1 24 

Dogs 150, 158 

Effect of 71 

Engine 170 

Frozen Horns 30, 91 

Frontal Sinuses 54 

Frontal Bone 54 

Flour 127 



Flies 131 

Farm Engine .' 1 70 

Farming 1 70 

Gouge 19 

Guernseys and Jerseys 68 

" Gentle Jerseys " 75 

Horns 9 

A Nuisance 77, 106 

Make up 10 

Circulation of Blood in 11 

Three Horned Steer n 

Growth of 17 

Hot Iron 24, 136 

How to Build Chute 46 

How to Hold Head 49 

Healing 53 

" Hollow Horn " 91 

Heaters 194 

Injuries in 33 

Jewel 48 

Jerseys and Guernseys 68 

Knocked off. 91 

Livingstone 29 

The Loop 32 

Letters — Hoard 69, 79 

Times 88 

Losses by 78 

Matrix 29, 53, 130 

Methods of Securing 32 

Mulleys 50, 77 

Meeting at Madkon, Wis ....... 60 

Milk Test 70, 87 

Maggots 131 

New Method of 43, 180 

Nerves 106 

Outcutter . . 19 

Polled Cattle 12 

Process of Healing 23 

Periosteum 26 

Power of Horn 29 

Pirates 43 

Price of 46 

Plank 49 

Pulleys . 50 

Parietal Wall 54 

Pain in 106 

Press and Papers (See ante) 

Puff Ball 127, 129 

" Putting Something on " 136 

Resolutions of Wisconsin Conven- 
tion 65 

Rings.. 74 

Rounding-up 138 

Shell Horn 22 

Shears, etc 24, 111, 136 

Saws 24 



INDEX. 



83 



Skull Bones 26 

Structure of Head Bone 28 

Stub Horns . 29, 53 

Sore Heads 30, 530 

Suppuration 31 

Stanchion 33, 35, 36, 37 

" Sawing off Horns " 46 

Shaping the Head 54 

Scribes and Pharisees 66 

Sheds 77, 140, 144 

Suture ' 91 

Texas Cattle 9, 12, 16, 134, 138 

Tags 13, 16, 18 



The Reason Why 15 

The Place When, etc 16 

"Ten Thousand Demand It". . . 86 

Tools 125 

Turpentine 131 

Tanks 146 

Verses 74, no 

"V.S." 75, 79 

When to 121, 136 

Why 133 

Warming Water 147 

Yards 42 

Young Bulls 136 









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